Samsung to Collaborate With Google, Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Meta on a New XR Headset: Report

Samsung launched its flagship smartphone lineup, the Galaxy S23 series, and the Galaxy Book 3 series of laptops at a Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event that took place in Barcelona on Wednesday. At the event, the South Korean conglomerate also revealed that the company was collaborating with Google and Qualcomm to develop a new extended reality (XR) headset. The company, however, shied away from revealing the name of the XR headset in the works but promised onlookers that the device will be arriving in the market soon.

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.