Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses use Qualcomm chips. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm, Samsung and Google are developing smart glasses.
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Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC the chip designer is working with Samsung and Google to explore a set of mixed reality glasses that connect to smartphones — taking a different approach from Apple, which launched Get bigger headphones.
Last year, Google, Samsung and Qualcomm entered into a partnership to jointly develop mixed reality technology. This refers to a combination of augmented reality and virtual reality, which usually involves digital images being forced onto the real world in front of you.
Amon’s comments were among the first to shed light on the project.
“This will be a new product, this will be a new experience,” Amon said when discussing the mixed reality partnership.
“But what I really hope to get out of this collaboration is that I hope everyone with a mobile phone will buy matching glasses to go with it,” Amon added.
Samsung and Google did not immediately comment when contacted by CNBC.
The CEO pointed to Facebook parent company Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which look like ordinary sunglasses but connect wirelessly to smartphones and have built-in cameras. On top of that, they also have a voice assistant powered by Meta’s Llama artificial intelligence model.
Qualcomm has also made mixed reality a key target area as it diversifies beyond smartphones. The company has a chip called Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1, which is designed for smart glasses.
Qualcomm has long touted the fact that its various chips in smartphones and PCs allow artificial intelligence applications to run on the device rather than being processed in the cloud over the Internet.
“Artificial intelligence will run on the device. It will run in the cloud. It will run some in glass, some in the phone, but ultimately, there will be completely new experiences,” Amon said.
Market is smaller
The market for virtual reality and augmented reality headsets is still smaller than that of smartphones. International Data Corporation expects VR and AR headset shipments to reach 9.7 million units this year, well below the forecast of 1.23 billion smartphone units.
A common complaint about AR and VR devices (usually large headsets to date) is that they are inconvenient and sometimes uncomfortable to wear. A set of smart glasses could solve this problem, bringing a stylish device to the mixed reality market.
“I think we need to get to the point where glasses are no different than wearing regular glasses or sunglasses. Then we can get to scale,” Amon said.
Smart glasses from Google, Samsung and Qualcomm will take different approaches Apple’s Vision Pro is a mixed reality headset launched this year that is worn on the user’s head and can be controlled through gestures.
Details on the project involving the three players remain scarce. TM Roh, head of Samsung’s mobile division, said in an interview with CNBC this year that the company will announce the launch of a new “mixed reality platform” within the year. Lu said it was likely a software product, but he declined to elaborate at the time.
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