Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

With the release of new brand products and the progress of the supply chain, China's consumer AR market may usher in a period of rapid growth in the second half of 2023.

Recently, the latest push figures released by Loto Technology show that sales of AR devices increased significantly in the overall online retail market of VR / AR devices in the second quarter, up 258% from the same period last year.

In addition, the AR market pattern is highly concentrated, and the head brand effect will be further strengthened: at present, the combined market share of TOP3 brands in China's AR online market reaches 90.2%, and the three are Thunderbird Innovation, XREAL and Rokid, of which Thunderbird Innovation ranks first with a share of 39.1%, which means that Thunderbird Innovation has occupied the first place in the domestic AR online market for three consecutive quarters since Q4 in 2022.

The dark horse of the industry has come to the fore, and consumer-grade AR products accelerate iteration

As an emerging brand established at the end of 2021, why did Thunderbird Innovation successfully rank first in the domestic consumer AR glasses online market in only one year? It is understood that Thunderbird innovation core team began to carry out XR-related research and development as early as 2017, and laid out AR-related technologies in 2018. At the beginning of the establishment of the brand, Thunderbird Innovation established two technical routes of BirdBath and optical waveguides. At present, Thunderbird Innovation has a more outstanding product ability in the BirdBath solution.

In 2022, Thunderbird Innovation launched two AR glasses of BirdBath solution within a year. With faster product iteration speed, better product experience, better content ecology, and relying on the technical advantages of TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics in display technology, Thunderbird succeeded in leaping to the top with a market share of 31.8% in the fourth quarter of that year, becoming the fastest growing AR brand in China.

Consumer AR market is optimistic, Thunderbird innovation is expected to bring new growth

If 2022 is the first year of domestic consumer AR glasses, then 2023 is the key to the development of domestic consumer AR market.

At this stage, Thunderbird Innovation still maintains a good momentum of development, and successfully completed the first round of financing of more than 100 million yuan in March this year, making it one of the brands with the highest amount of financing in the AR industry so far.

It is reported that the first round of financing funds for Thunderbird Innovation will be used to promote the technology research and development, mass production, market expansion and the introduction of AR talents for consumer-grade AR glasses, which are the two technological routes of BirdBath and optical waveguide, so as to promote the landing and market popularity of consumer-grade AR glasses. Loto Technology said that in the first half of this year, as the third new product of Thunderbird BirdBath series AR glasses, Thunderbird Air Plus achieved a significant improvement in display effect, along with the newly launched independent audio-visual entertainment terminal Thunderbird box, so that the "glasses + magic box" product portfolio in the connection experience, content richness are guaranteed, further stimulating sales growth. During the period of June 18, the official battle reports released by JD.com and Tmall showed that Thunderbird Air Plus smart glasses both won the first place in AR glasses category sales.

Throughout the consumer AR market, the BirdBath scheme has gradually matured and become the mainstream mass production optics scheme. How to find new breakthroughs and usher in more growth opportunities in the fast-growing consumer-grade AR market? Thunderbird innovation, which has been working on the "MicroLED + optical waveguide" route since its inception, may be able to bring a new direction for the further development of the consumer AR market from the aspects of optical display, content ecology, AR application and so on.

At present, the industry is generally optimistic about the development of the domestic consumer-grade AR market. In 2022, iResearch Consulting predicted that the total domestic consumer-grade AR glasses shipments would exceed hundreds of thousands in 2023. Not long ago, Loto Technology predicted that AR omni-channel sales were expected to reach 250000 units in 2023. As a head brand with good development momentum, what new changes and new growth will Thunderbird Innovation bring to the rising domestic consumer AR market? It deserves attention both inside and outside the industry.

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