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AI PCs emerged as one of last year’s success stories, albeit without enough consumer buzz. According to the Gartner forecast, they may represent 31 per cent of global shipments of PCs. With annual shipments of nearly 78 million units in 2025, the market share of AI PCs, which are defined as personal computers with embedded neural processing units or equivalent AI accelerators, more than doubled from roughly 15 per cent in 2024. This shift has two implications. First, AI PCs are not a fringe experiment. They are moving toward mainstream adoption within the PC category.

Second, the sheer pace of growth, and market share, suggest that manufacturers and buyers are prioritising devices with built-in AI capability, even if specific AI use cases are still evolving. Examples of products in this category include premium laptops such as Dell XPS 13 Plus with Intel Core Ultra processors and built-in neural engines, Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 with integrated AI accelerators, and Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 with Copilot+ optimisation.

Despite the growth, there was uneven adoption. While awareness among IT partners is high, and some estimates suggest that more than 70 per cent of B2B partners are aware of AI PCs, only a minority of enterprise buyers ranked AI capability as the top purchasing criterion. Instead, they were keen on issues such as Windows 11 upgrades, security, and battery life.

A similar mixed story eluded the AI-first gadgets and consumer hardware, some of which collapsed in 2025. For example, the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 captured imagination, and rapidly lost relevance. Humane, a high-profile AI startup backed by celebrity investors, shut down the production of AI Pin consumer product, and sold the assets for $116 million, a fraction of the earlier valuations.

Similarly, Rabbit R1, an AI lifestyle device that was once touted as a new category, underperformed. According to the founder’s statements, and multiple reporting sources, of the 1,00,000 units sold, about 5,000 users used them actively. This highlighted a steep fall-off in engagement after the initial purchases. The failure for this category was structural. It desired to replace smartphones without matching the latter’s reliability, ecosystem depth, or breadth of utility. AI alone is not enough to justify a new category. This was a sobering reminder, as the industry soberingly realised that AI possibly works best as a layer, and not as a standalone product.

Gaming handheld PCs was another category that leaned toward disappointment. It generated online discussions in 2025, but the commercial footprint remained modest. Devices such as Steam Deck OLED refresh, and Windows-based handhelds gained visibility, but the volumes remained niche. Battery life constraints, high prices, and fragmented software experiences limited the appeal. The global shipments of Windows-based or dedicated gaming handheld PCs stayed below two million units in 2025.

Not all the innovative hardware struggled in 2025. A category that achieved meaningful traction was smart glasses, particularly the AI-enabled eyewear, which progressed beyond experimentation, and moved towards mainstream adoption. According to Omdia, worldwide shipments of AI glasses, which may cross the five-million mark in 2025, will double to more than 10 million in 2026. After more than 150 per cent growth in the last year, the forecast is for 200 per cent growth this year, and a predicted sales of 35 million by 2030.

Data from Counterpoint corroborates this momentum. In the first half of 2025, global smart glasses shipments surged by 110 per cent year-on-year, with AI-enabled models accounting for nearly 78 per cent. Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses captured nearly 73 per cent share of the smart glasses market during the period. Meta is likely to capture the bulk of the share of projected shipments this year.

Apple’s Vision Pro, a spatial computer that blends the physical world with digital content, may be one of the most tech-impressive products of the decade, but 2025 made it the firm’s most conspicuous product miss. It failed to achieve a meaningful scale. Multiple reports indicate that global shipments remained below one million units, with estimates clustering between 400,000 and 600,000 units since the launch. After reports that Apple had cut production targets in 2024 due to the softening of demand, the slowdown persisted in 2025.

The pricing barrier was decisive. At $3,499, Vision Pro sat far outside the mass-market reach. While Apple positioned it as a productivity and collaboration tool, enterprise pilots did not translate into scaled rollouts. Developers slowed investment due to low installed base, and unclear monetisation pathways. By mid-2025, reports suggested that the firm had decided to reduce component orders, delay a second-generation Vision Pro, and shift the focus to a lower-cost variant in 2026. Counterpoint estimates that AR/VR headsets accounted for less than one per cent of global consumer electronics shipments in 2025.

Let us end with a smartphone, although we discussed them in a previous column. Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold was one of 2025’s most striking launches. Launch details confirm that the firm unveiled the device at a high price point (roughly $2,440), and a large 10-inch display. The device was targeted at niche enthusiasts. Reports from South Korea indicate limited initial production, with 20,000-30,000 units made in the first run, a figure that is smaller than typical flagship volumes. This cautious approach reflects that Samsung is hedging on demand. Independent data supports this view.