William Gallagher
China's Xreal now has $300 million to invest in its Xreal Air 2 Ultra, as another investor contributes to its plan to take on the Apple Vision Pro.
The Xreal Air 2 Ultra headset was demonstrated to great effect at 2024's Consumer Electronics Show where its capabilities were significantly less than Apple's, but so is its price. Now according to Bloomberg, Xreal's CEO Chi Xu has announced that a new funding round has gained it a further $60 million.
"This will help us scale our manufacturing capabilities and research and development," said Chi, specifying that the investment is needed for its 2025 plans. "2023 was a very good year, and the market size pretty much doubled."
"There's a good chance we can do 50,000 units of Ultra this year," he continued, claiming that consumers are not interested in the advanced features of other headsets. He said that Xreal's cheaper headsets were "definitely easier to sell."
Nonetheless, Chi claims that Xreal is more advanced than Apple in certain areas. "I think we're three to five years ahead of them in AR," he said. "They are catching up, though. So we need to keep up and push the boundary."
The Xreal Air 2 Ultra as shown at CES will sell for $699, starting in March 2024. The previous model, the Xreal Air 2 Pro is on Amazon B0CHVQWW4P.
By comparison, the Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499.
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5 Comments
I kinda trust that when the glasses form factor is viable it’ll be Apple that does it right, bringing the Apple ecosystem of apps and continuity along for the ride. But go ahead and spend, other companies, to try to lead the way; in the end it won’t much matter.
Such high style!
Did they say they’re “taking on” the AVP? Because these doesn’t look to be in the same product category.