Samsung Partners with Google, Qualcomm to Develop New XR Device

For the most part, Samsung Electronics is staging its Unpacked product launch event in Northern California to reveal a trio of new Galaxy S23 smartphones, plus a handful of laptops. But that’s not all.

Beyond updating some of its core product lines, the company also unveiled plans to develop new “extended reality” products and experiences with help from key partners including Google and Qualcomm.

At the Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event, Samsung confirmed its plans for an upcoming XR headset that will be powered by a specialised chipset from Qualcomm. Meanwhile, the company also revealed that the XR headset will run on Google's latest Wear OS version, designed and developed with a focus on wearables, that would suit Samsung's vision for the XR headset.

Interestingly, a report by The Washington Post reveals that the South Korean conglomerate's extended reality venture will also include a service partnership with Meta and Microsoft, which truly makes this a coming together of big tech on a single mission. Google and Qualcomm also confirmed their partnership with Samsung on the XR headset, according to the report.

In the report, TM Roh, president and head of Samsung's mobile experience business, claims that they will take a cautious approach while entering into the mixed reality space as they do not want to make the same mistakes as many other players, who seem to have gotten on to the bus too soon, have.

"There have been many attempts by other companies so far, but not as successful as had been hoped because perhaps the ecosystem was not as ready as it should have been,” the report quotes Roh.

Samsung had backed away from building reality headsets since 2018, with its revised version of the 107 Odyssey headset meant for Windows PCs being the last one.

Meanwhile, Apple is also reportedly gearing up to unveil its first XR headset, dubbed the Reality Pro, this year. The Reality Pro is expected to come with fancy features such as hand and eye movement tracking, immersive visuals, and advanced AR/VR videoconferencing capabilities.

February 02, 2023