Samsung’s mobile division president, TM Roh, during the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event, confirmed that the company is developing a new extended reality (XR) platform in collaboration with Qualcomm and Google, saying it “is coming later this year.”
Now, as per a Business Insider report, Samsung’s upcoming XR platform code-named “Moohan” will be available for developers as early as October 2024, while the product launch is slated for March 2025.
Speaking of the timelines, it seems like the company is planning to launch its XR headset almost exactly a year after Apple launched its spatial computer Vision Pro, which hit the market in February 2024.
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Samsung XR Headset To Run On A Qualcomm Chipset
Rick Osterloh, the senior vice president of Platforms and Devices at Google, said during Galaxy Unpacked, “We’re collaborating to bring next-generation experiences across Galaxy products from smartphones and wearables to even future technologies like the upcoming XR platform we’ve been working closely to develop in partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm.”
Samsung has already confirmed that the XR headset will be based on a Qualcomm chip and will be backed by the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, which is stated to be Qualcomm’s most capable chip for VR headsets. However, there are reports that hint at a new chip-Snadragon XR2+ Gen 3- which is likely to be more capable and power-efficient than its precursor. It is also unclear if Samsung will host a public event for the introduction of its XR headset in October or if the headsets will be silently seeded to developers.
As of now, there isn’t much information available on its features, except for the fact that it will run Android OS. If leaks are to be believed, Samsung’s XR headset will come with OLED screens, eight tracking cameras, and a Time-of-Flight sensor, and is also said to be capable of hand and eye tracking. Samsung could also pitch this as the first XR headset with AI features.
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Samsung To Give Smart Assistant Bixby An AI Makeover
Samsung went all in on AI with the Galaxy S24 earlier this year. All those AI features are powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI models, and everyone was expecting Bixby to get updated, especially considering how popular digital assistants like ChatGPT are these days. However, the company did not update Bixby.
But that could change pretty soon. After the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung MX CEO TM Roh told CNBC that the company will give Bixby a makeover and that it will be backed by the company’s own LLM. He said, “We’re going to advance Bixby with the application of Gen AI technology.” The company launched its proprietary LLM dubbed Samsung Gauss a few months ago.