President of Samsung Mobile eXperience Roh Tae-moon and Vice President of Google Devices & Services Rick Osterloh stand on stage during the Samsung Galaxy 2024 Unpacked event to unveil the next generation of AI powered Galaxy phones and devices at the Carrousel du Louvre venue in Paris, France, 10 July 2024./EPA Yonhap News

Samsung Electronics and Google are gearing up to release their extended reality (XR) headset in the first quarter of next year, according to recent reports.

Business Insider reported July 12 that Google is heavily focusing on Android XR, a new software platform intended to support various XR devices. Google hopes hardware partners will adopt this software. The report stated, “Google and Samsung partnered on a headset that will be powered by Google’s new software. However, leaders, fearing the device isn’t yet good enough to dazzle users, have continually pushed it back, according to people familiar with the timeline. The launch has been delayed to the first quarter of next year, they said.”

Business Insider also mentioned, “Google and Samsung are still building a joint device—a mixed-reality headset more akin to Apple’s Vision Pro, internally codenamed Moohan. The device, announced in February 2023, was initially planned to launch in the first quarter of this year but has been pushed back. According to a person familiar with the internal timeline, a consumer version is now set for next March, with a developer version planned for release this October.”

The report added, “There is internal speculation that Samsung will be the first to also build glasses with Google’s AR software, according to two employees familiar with the matter.”

In February last year, Samsung Electronics announced at a new smartphone launch event that it would collaborate with Google and Qualcomm to create an XR headset. Following this announcement, there was little official mention of the project for over a year. However, on July 10, President of Samsung Mobile eXperience Roh Tae-moon stated at the launch event for a new foldable phone that the XR platform would be unveiled this year.

Both Samsung Electronics and Google have previously attempted to enter the virtual reality market but faced significant challenges. Google aims to leverage its collaboration with Samsung to offer Android XR to other manufacturers, aspiring to become the leader in the XR OS market.