Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm Are Working on “Extended Reality” Products

Samsung held its Galaxy Unpacked event yesterday where the company officially revealed its Galaxy S23 and Galaxy Book3 Series. During the keynote, the company also announced that it was working with Qualcomm and Google on “extended reality” products.

Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm, and Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Platforms and Ecosystems at Google joined TM Roh, Samsung’s President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business on stage to discuss how they plan to collaborate on a next-generation “XR” experience. The three companies will be working together to “develop advanced hardware and software to make this immersive technology a reality.”

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“An exciting space where Google has been investing in for a long time across both experiences and technology is AR and VR,” said Hiroshi Lockheimer. “These technologies are integral to the new phase of computing as it can change the way we interact with people and information to get things done in the real world.”

In a separate interview with The Washington Post, the head of Samsung’s mobile experience business addressed the existing competition without explicitly mentioning the elephant in the room, which is Apple’s upcoming mixed-reality headset. “Many different companies … have been making these announcements about different realities,” TM Roh said. “So we have also been making similar preparations, no less than any others.”

The exec added that Samsung’s first XR product will use a Qualcomm chip and software from Google. Samsung already has some experience with virtual reality products: Tthe company previously released its Gear VR headset which required an Android phone, as well as the “Odyssey” Windows Mixed Reality headset. However, the company is aware that its first XR product isn’t guaranteed to be successful.

“We believe that the ecosystem has to be somewhat ready for the product to be launched and for the product to be successful as well,” Roh said. “And as you know, 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.”

There’s no ETA yet for Samsung’s first extended reality device, but it makes sense for the company to team up with Google and Qualcomm on this new effort. Samsung’s new Galaxy S23 series actually use Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform, which is probably a tacit admission that Qualcomm’s chips are superior to Samsung’s in-house Exynos chips.

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