Samsung may have a pair of smart glasses in development, according to a report. The South Korean technology conglomerate is said to be partnering with Google for its development and it may be powered by a Qualcomm chipset. In the report, a Qualcomm official was said to have expressed his delight at the success of Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses. This development builds upon the announcement that Samsung made last year regarding the development of a mixed-reality headset while teaming up with Google.
In a conversation with CNBC, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon hinted at a pair of smart glasses that is being developed by Samsung and Google. Amon said, “It’s going to be a new product, new experiences. What I really expect to come out of this partnership, I want everyone that has a phone to go buy companion glasses to go along with it.”
Citing generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) as the “inflection point” for the success of the Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, Amon said that he was “incredibly pleased”. The purported smart glasses is tipped to run AI on-device as well as through the cloud.
While the official did not explicitly reveal details about the purported product, it is strongly believed to be the same wearable device whose development was confirmed by Samsung in 2023. However, at the time, it was speculated to be an extended reality (XR) headset which would be available to developers in October this year.
Notably, XR is an umbrella term which encompasses all three visual technologies: augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR). While Samsung has introduced a VR headset in the past (Gear VR), it would be the first time an XR headset is launched by the South Korean company. As per previous reports, the purported device may be powered by an XR2 Gen2+ platform, which harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) for bringing AR and MR experiences to devices.
However, it is unclear if the purported XR headset could actually be the smart glasses that the Qualcomm CEO has hinted towards.
