Flying all the way from Australia to Shanghai to attend his first Appliance & Electronics World Expo, distributor Simon Cuff was impressed by the scale and, most important, the spectacle of the event.
Surrounded by hundreds of humanoid robots and thousands of artificial intelligence systems and smart cars, it was a product from Chinese augmented reality company Xreal that, quite literally, caught his eye.
Called Project Aura, it is the latest Android XR eyewear developed by Google in collaboration with the Shanghai-based company.
"This is leading-edge," he said. "That's exactly what we want to find: new brands with huge market potential, new technology, innovation and growth potential."
Although the product is currently only a prototype, Cuff said that if it actually works when it officially launches later this year, it would be amazing.
Notably, almost all the core hardware for Project Aura was developed domestically, signaling that Chinese manufacturing is becoming a key force behind next-generation computing platforms, according to Zhang Chao, head of communications at Xreal.
Smart glasses were a highlight of this year's expo, with numerous options from various domestic producers on display. For instance, the Qwen Glasses G1, deeply integrated with the Alibaba ecosystem, offers seamless functionality with apps like Alipay, while the Xiaodu AI Glasses Pro unveiled by Baidu, weighing just 39 grams, features first-person perspective recording as well as real-time translation and note-taking during meetings.
"Smart glasses are seemingly on the verge of an era similar to that experienced by smartphones about two decades ago," said Xu Chi, founder and CEO of Xreal, on March 12 in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of this year's AWE.
According to Xu, although technologically smart glasses are yet to reach their "iPhone moment", a growing number of Chinese companies are exploring the sector in a bid to gain a competitive edge in the global marketplace.
"It is highly likely that more AI glasses will be developed in China, leveraging the country's manufacturing capabilities and rapid iteration to compete in global markets," Xu added.
Tao Xiaonian, chairman of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, said that the biggest takeaway from this year's AWE, one of China's largest exhibitions for home appliances and consumer electronics, was the deep integration of AI across the industry.
"As a result, the expo has become an important window for observing China's consumer electronics development and forecasting future smart lifestyle technology trends," Tao said.
Matthew Hitchings, from the United Kingdom, caught a glimpse of what modern households might look like in the near future. From robots that fold clothes to those that clean swimming pools, Hitchings was struck by the potential of these innovations to become ubiquitous in daily life.
"Seeing products like this allows me to see what's going to be everywhere, and what everyone is going to be using in the next five years," he said.
Baptiste Campisi, from France, took a more artistic view of the expo. "I think Chinese brands are doing a really good job, design wise," he said. "You can see it in the cars, vacuums, smart glasses and screens — they're really good-looking products."
"We realize that now Chinese brands are really driving the market.... They're innovative and pushing the boundaries on convenience and performance," said Campisi, who works for a retailer in Europe. "So, it's always a good benchmark for us in Europe to see what's happening here, which pushes us to do better."
