Samsung, Google and Qualcomm Team Up To Build a New Mixed-Reality Platform

During Samsung's Unpacked event on Wednesday where it unveiled its new Galaxy S23 smartphones, the company said it'll work with Google and Qualcomm on an upcoming mixed-reality platform. Samsung didn't mention any specific products or timeline. CNET reports: 'It's more of a declarative announcement about how we are going to get it right in trying to build the XR ecosystem,' TM Roh, president of Samsung's mobile division, said in an interview with CNET through a translator ahead of the event. 'Google's been investing for a long time across both experiences and technology in AR and VR,' Lockheimer said onstage. 'Delivering this next generation of experiences requires cutting-edge advanced hardware and software. That's why our collaboration with Samsung and Qualcomm is so exciting.'

Samsung has been relatively quiet about virtual reality aside from its Gear VR headset, which it launched several iterations of between 2015 and 2017. That device is a head-mounted holster for smartphone-powered VR experiences. Roh says there's been more demand from consumers for augmented and virtual reality, which is why the company chose this time to start discussing its plans. He says that the company has been researching the category for a while. 'And now we believe that we have reached a certain threshold,' he said.

The collaboration makes sense since Samsung, Google and Qualcomm already work together to develop smartphones. Samsung builds the hardware of its Galaxy phones, while Qualcomm supplies the processor and Google manages the software's underlying Android operating system. Roh said Google and Qualcomm will play similar roles in the development of this upcoming XR platform, although they will likely overlap in certain areas. Even though Qualcomm would supply the processor, for example, Samsung might make some optimizations, just as it's done for the chip inside the Galaxy S23 lineup. 'Each player is taking leadership in each category, and then we will be working very closely together across the different categories,' Roh said.

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