Samsung has a new headset coming, powered by Android XR, and it looks an awful lot like an Apple Vision Pro clone. While the existence of another Samsung product that takes inspiration from Apple might upset some users, I think it could be really great news for Vision Pro owners.
The Vision Pro is inspiring its competition
When Apple introduced the Vision Pro, many saw the technology as a leap into the future, a unique market changer.
The seamless interaction method of eye and hand tracking, the focus on productivity and being a proper computer, and much more showed how Apple was thinking different about AR and VR.
But now, Samsung and Google have teamed up to create something that looks very, very similar.
Their product is much lighter, and will reportedly undercut Vision Pro’s price (though no pricing or release date have yet been announced).
My initial take after reading several hands-on impressions is that Apple has some real competition on its hands.
And that’s a very good thing.
For further reading from 9to5Google:
Now the competition can push Vision Pro forward
I’m deep in the Apple ecosystem, and it would take a lot for me to change that.
I suspect if I tried Samsung’s currently-unnamed headset, I’d have plenty of complaints. Samsung and Android products tend to work in ways I find frustrating.
But regardless, this new headset should motivate Apple to keep pushing harder with the Vision Pro—and any other Vision products in development.
For example, I love how Google seems to have made Gemini a core part of the Android XR operating system.
Mark Gurman writes at Bloomberg:
Google had been developing Android XR for several years, but “took a pause” to rebuild the software around AI. The company’s AI features are now core to the operating system. For instance, glasses with Android XR can use external cameras to analyze a newly bought piece of furniture and then provide instructions to assemble it. On a headset, it can control actions like mapping out a vacation in Google Maps.
How well all of this works remains to be seen. But integrating AI with an XR headset seems like a no-brainer.
Apple should absolutely make AI a core part of visionOS in the future.
But if serious competition like Samsung and Google didn’t exist, I’m not sure how driven Apple would be to push the Vision Pro to its full potential.
Sure there are other VR players like Meta, but they largely seem focused on gaming. What Samsung and Google are building seems to genuinely follow the same product ‘vision’ as Apple’s Vision Pro.
If this new product didn’t exist, Apple could easily look at the competitive landscape and assume it can take its foot off the gas with Vision Pro and visionOS.
But now, motivated by its long-time rivals, Apple can further prioritize making Vision Pro the best it can be.
What do you think about Samsung’s new headset? Do you think it’s a Vision Pro clone? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.
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