Samsung to Review Specifications for its Own Virtual Reality Product

The Apple Vision Pro will not be available until next year, but it is already causing major shifts in the competition. Shortly after Google stopped developing VR glasses, Samsung has decided to review the specifications for its own virtual reality product.
Korea’s SBS Biz has read internal reporting from Samsung showing that the company is “postponing project schedule for new products of existing XR devices.” Originally, the company was supposed to come up with new glasses early next year, but that now seems to have been pushed back by 1 to 2 quarters.

Completely New Design?

It would probably be a complete redesign, as the internal reporting talks about revising “all internal specifications and performance, such as the design and display panel of the new XR product.” According to SBS Biz sources, this decision was made to compete with the Apple Vision Pro.
Like the Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, these would be glasses with an internal processor. It should run on an Android based OS.
XR stands for “extended reality,” which some companies use to refer to virtual reality or augmented reality solutions. Sometimes that means glasses that completely cut you off from the real world to see a digital 3D image, while a product like the Vision Pro mixes the real world with digital assets. Sometimes this is called “mixed reality”. In other words, there is not really any standardization of these terms yet.

Not the First Time

Despite little success, Samsung is a persistent player in the VR market. It soon came with the GearVR, a solution in collaboration with Oculus (now part of Meta) intended for mobile phones. However, it could count on little software support, had weak performance and was quickly outdated. Subsequently, it was one of the OEM partners for the Windows Mixed Reality VR desktop platform, which is an outdated product. Within this ecosystem, the Samsung HMD Odyssey was a respectable choice.