The arrival of the Apple Vision Pro has apparently forced a delay in the launch of Samsung’s own XR (extended reality) headset: the Samsung device, originally scheduled for release in February 2024, is now expected to be released in mid-2024 or later.
this comes from SBSBusiness (pass sam mobile), the story seems to be that seeing the Vision Pro forced Samsung execs to rethink their own devices. An upgrade in display clarity is one possible cause of the delay.
Clearly, Samsung doesn’t want to release a headset that’s clearly inferior to Apple’s own offering, even if it’s also cheaper. The Vision Pro is priced at $3,499 (around £2,725 / AU$5,230) and is expected to be available in limited quantities for a while.
Currently, there are still few specific details about what the Samsung XR headset will offer, although it is believed to run Google’s Android software and be powered by some kind of Qualcomm chipset.
choose your reality
All these different versions of reality can take some getting used to. Samsung’s preference for XR (or extended reality) actually refers to all the different types of related technologies we’ve seen so far.
Augmented reality (AR) is the superimposition of digital objects on top of the real world. Then there’s virtual reality (VR), which refers to a completely self-contained digital environment. Mixed reality (MR) generally means augmented AR, in which digital objects are able to sense and interact with the physical world around them.
Vision Pro is often referred to as a mixed reality device, while Meta Quest 3 is mostly about virtual reality. Extended reality (XR) is often thought of as a combination of AR, VR, and MR — though there’s still a lot of confusion because tech companies tend to use the terms in different ways.
We’ll have to wait and see what Samsung’s been building and what it’s capable of, but the extra development time should mean a better device — and a more worthy competitor when the Vision Pro finally hits the market.
