Qualcomm, Samsung, and Google announced their partnership to produce an XR headset at the Unpacked event in February. 2023. Screenshot by ZDNET
According to a new report from Upload VR and Korean newspapers JunangThe XR alliance formed by Samsung, Google and Qualcomm to create a mixed reality headset has hit the reset button on their project and delayed the launch.
JunAng reports that Samsung has now commissioned higher-resolution screens from Samsung Display for its XR headsets to surprisingly match. 4K-in-every-eye (8K) Display — Made by Sony — that Apple unveiled at Vision Pro. This contributed to the delay of Samsung headset announcements from early 2024 to mid-2024 and pushed the headset product launch to the end of the year.
Separately, upload VR Report Samsung has communicated with the developers that its new headset will now launch by the end of 2024.
JunAng’s sources also claimed that the production target for Samsung headsets will be 30,000 units for 2024. By comparison, Apple has production targets said Also scaled from 1 million to 400,000 units of Vision Pro by 2024. The Samsung headset is expected to cost around $2,000, compared to $3,500 for the Apple Vision Pro and $500 for the Meta Quest 3 in October.
Also: I tried the Apple Vision Pro and it far exceeded my expectations
Join this information Multiple reports What has emerged since this summer is that Samsung, Google and Qualcomm decided to go back to the drawing board when Apple announced the Vision Pro at WWDC in June which took the industry by surprise. However, late at the Unpacked event in July, Samsung said its headset announcement was “not too far off”.
Samsung is designing the hardware for the joint venture XR headset, while Google is developing a mixed reality version of Android, and Qualcomm is providing the underlying chip technology — presumably Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 platformwhich powers the Meta Quest 3 headset.
At CES 2023, I tested the HTC Vive XR Elite, which is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 chip. June One/ZDnet
Also: The Mater $500 Quest 3 is the mainstream VR headset I’ve been waiting for, and it delivers
Such a reset is reminiscent of the birth of Android, when Google was designing its smartphone platform as a BlackBerry-like system until it saw Apple’s iPhone announcement and then started over. Instead, it turned Android into a much more iPhone-like multitouch interface, and Samsung quickly became Android’s leading proponent and top-selling hardware maker.
If this It has reportedly leaked prototypes of the headset — clearly designed in the mold of early Oculus Quest and HTC Vive headsets — were real, so it’s a positive step that the trio is rebooting their plans. I expect Samsung to design much more interesting hardware products by the time it takes a look at its next-generation headset in mid-2024 — perhaps at the summer Unpacked event where it usually unveils its latest foldable phones.