Samsung's Apple Vision Pro competitor could be released in March 2025.

Samsung's Apple Vision Pro competitor could be released in March 2025.

Just days after Google and Samsung announced a surprise headset for late 2024, a new report claims that the mystery device will not be available until March 2025.

Samsung held a major “Galaxy Unpacked Summer 2024” event last week on July 10. At the end of the show, Google's Rick Osterloh appeared on stage to reaffirm the partnership between the two companies and made a surprise announcement that “a new XR platform is coming later this year.”

Two days later, Business Insider published a report on the headset's potential, claiming it would not be released until next year.

Neither Google nor Samsung have released any other details about the pending platform, which is said to run its own version of Android called Android XR.

Samsung's device, potentially nicknamed the Samsung Infinite, would be the first product to run Android XR; The Information reports that Google is pitching the XR system to other manufacturers.

The Google-Samsung collaboration was initially announced at last February's Galaxy Unpacked event with Qualcomm. Nothing was revealed about the potential device until last week's announcement.

Reports in June 2023 suggested that Samsung had abandoned the design and returned to the drawing board to compete with Apple's Vision Pro headset. Samsung presumably wants to produce a headset in the $1,000-$1,500 range while outperforming Apple's device.

Rumors about this XR headset have been flying everywhere, as earlier reports also said that Samsung's device would be released by Sony this year.

According to Business Insider, a developer version of this device is set to arrive in October 2024, with a consumer version set for March. It has been suggested that the delay in news about this mysterious device is mainly due to Google's side.

The company has seen a trend of defections from its AR/XR team to other companies like Meta. The company has also been plagued by layoffs and team turnover amid internal reforms, such as Google's merger of its Devices and Android groups in April of this year.

What this collaboration between Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm will produce is undetermined at this time. Will we see some sort of device by the end of this year? Samsung and Google have only said that something is coming, but there is no other information about the headset.

Press reports take time. Especially with off-the-record sources and the need for fact-checking; Business Insider's report may be more accurate, but it was also being investigated before last Wednesday's surprise announcement; it's unclear now if the timeline has changed from BI's information.

It would make sense if a developer version would drop in October along with consumer devices in early 2025, but this is all we know now.

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