TL;DR
- Samsung’s latest earnings report confirms plans for “XR devices” in 2025.
- The firm has already expressed curiosity in an XR headset, and this means it’s nonetheless a precedence.
- Separately, an outdated patent software is inspiring hypothesis about how this new hardware would possibly take form.
Are we within the early days of an AR/VR/MR renaissance, or simply watching the latest makes an attempt of corporations making an attempt and failing to make their numerous prolonged actuality (XR) efforts stick? On one hand, we now have rumors about Apple shutting down Vision Pro manufacturing, and on the opposite we’ve bought Meta bringing high-quality VR to the plenty with the brand new Quest 3S. A crossroads like this could be a massive alternative for gamers ready to make the most of it, and proper now Samsung’s wanting prefer it is perhaps in simply the precise spot.
Samsung flirted with VR early on with the Gear VR, even partnering with Oculus, earlier than abandoning these efforts on the flip of the last decade. But earlier this 12 months, it appeared that the spark had retuned, and we began listening to severe chatter about Samsung’s renewed curiosity in XR. With even the Play Store preparing for XR apps, our greatest query has been once we would possibly see this new hardware land, and that’s wanting an increasing number of firmly like “sometime next year.”
Companies in all places are sharing their latest quarterly figures with traders proper now, and Samsung isn’t any completely different. This week in its Q3 report, Samsung expresses certainly one of its 2025 targets for its cellular enterprise as, “Improve connectivity among products, including upcoming XR devices, to further elevate user experiences in the Galaxy ecosystem,” (by way of Gizmodo).
While that’s nonetheless a reasonably extensive window, it’s nonetheless very reassuring for any XR lovers to listen to the corporate speaking about these plans as one thing it intends to sort out within the very close to future, slightly than talking extra vaguely about its intent, or with some nebulous, far-off date.
We can also’t assist however discover the usage of “devices,” plural, there. The firm has lately talked about mixed-reality sensible glasses, however may we additionally get one thing a bit of extra immersive? If there are a number of merchandise within the works, that feels more and more doubtless.
So Samsung’s new XR resolution is coming, and shortly — nice. But what type is it going to take? Here, the knowledge we’re is kind of a bit shakier, however nonetheless fairly attention-grabbing. Just ensure you take a second to understand the context this arrives in:
Two years in the past, Samsung submitted a patent software in South Korea for a pair of cellular controllers that connect to a central charging dock — and blessedly, that paperwork features a picture of the hardware in query. SamMobile resurfaced that submitting this week, and we now have to confess: Those actually do appear like they could possibly be the controllers you employ with an XR headset. The translated textual content even identifies this as a “Metaverse Controller.”
But as a result of it is a patent, an enormous quantity of warning is warranted. A patent is much from a assure that an thought can be was a industrial product — and even when Samsung does intend to construct and promote this, we nonetheless can’t say with any certainty if this may be part of its 2025 XR plans. It is attention-grabbing to consider, although, isn’t it?