China's smart glasses are already dominating — and Meta's Hypernova pricing shows it

Summary

Meta is pricing its upcoming Hypernova smart glasses at $800 when it launches at the Connect event on September 17 and 18, according to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg. Chinese competitors have already moved into the market at a fraction of that cost. Alibaba released smart glasses called Quark Vision about a month ago priced at 1,999 yuan, roughly $280. With Chinese manufacturers shipping comparable hardware at less than half Meta's price, the company's $800 bet assumes either significant differentiation in software or performance, or that brand and ecosystem lock-in can sustain a substantial premium in a category where price competition is already intense.