At the end of last February's "Unpacked 2023" event, Samsung invited executives from Google and Qualcomm to hint at a future mixed reality platform that the three companies would build together. At that time, Google's senior vice president, Hiroshi Lockheimer, spent time detailing a special version of Android that would run this potential AR, VR, and XR platform.

Earlier today (July 10) at the Galaxy Unpacked event, Rick Osterloh, now Google's senior vice president of platforms and devices, revealed that this partnership is underway and that a mixed reality product is in the works.

To draw a line under Osterloh's comments, Samsung's TR Roh then appeared to confirm that "a new XR platform is coming later this year."

And all that was said at Galaxy Unpacked was about this upcoming announcement. The event ended shortly after this teaser.

There are rumors that Samsung is developing a headset device similar to Apple's Vision Pro called the Samsung Infinite. Qualcomm's role in this headset is to develop a new "superchip" to compete with Apple.

Samsung's version is believed to be a more affordable option to the Vision Pro, and there are rumors that Samsung wants to keep the price closer to $1,500 rather than the $3,499 that Apple charges for the headset.

Last year, around the time of the February 2023 Unpacked event, Roh told The Washington Post that "many different companies ... . are making these announcements about different realities... So we've been preparing for the same thing."

Until today's surprise announcement, I had thought that this elusive headset and platform was not expected until 2025 at the earliest.

Unfortunately, neither Google nor Samsung have announced anything beyond a 2024 release date. We will have to wait to see what the headset looks like and for more details on its features.

Perhaps Google will mention more details during the Made by Google event scheduled for August 13. Google is also working on its own version of AI/AR smart glasses, which it teased at Google I/O in May.