Samsung’s purported XR headset may be available to developers in October this year, according to a report. The South Korean technology conglomerate, at its recent Galaxy Unpacked event, teased its extended reality (XR) platform, with TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics, stating that it would be “coming this year”. Now, a new report speculates that while it may arrive for developers later in 2024, its launch for the public could be delayed till 2025.
According to a Business Insider report, the XR headset is being developed by Samsung in collaboration with Google. Thus, it is speculated to run on some form of Android firmware provided by the latter, dubbed Android XR, which is currently in internal development. However, the device reportedly isn’t ready yet and its launch may get delayed to Q1 2025, likely until March next year.
Before the device becomes available to the public, Samsung is tipped to introduce an early version of its XR headset, codenamed “Moohan”, for developers by October this year. The report further adds that this is not the first instance that the headset’s release date has been pushed back, with it facing multiple delays related to the refinement of the technology involved.
Notably, XR is an umbrella term which encompasses all three visual technologies: augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR). While Samsung has dipped its toes in the world of VR with its Gear VR, it will be the first time an XR headset is introduced by the technology giant. It may be powered by a Qualcomm processor, which is speculated to be the Snapdragon XR2 Gen2+ platform developed for bringing AR and MR experiences to devices, harnessing artificial intelligence (AI).
With its headset, Samsung is speculated to compete against companies such as Apple and Meta which already have their own mixed reality headsets in the market. According to a report from November 2023, Samsung (at the time) targeted selling 30,000 units of the XR headset initially. The OLEDoS (OLED on Silicon) displays used for the headset are tipped to be developed by Samsung Display – the company’s own display manufacturing unit.