In June 2023 Patently Apple noted in a report that Samsung, Google and Qualcomm representatives announced a new Extended Reality (XR) ecosystem alliance. Roh Tae-moon, president of Samsung Electronics' Mobile eXperience Business stated at the time: "We will transform the future of the mobile industry by building the XR ecosystem together with Qualcomm and Google." Rumors suggested that Qualcomm will make the chips, Google will introduce an Android-based operating system for eyewear and Samsung will initially focus on the hardware side of things. With Apple’s Vision Pro not selling well, the alliance is now rapidly expanding their alliance to work on smartglasses.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC in an interview that they’re working with Samsung and Google to explore a mixed-reality set of glasses linked to a smartphone — taking a different approach from Apple, which launched a larger headset. Amon’s comments are among the first to shed light on the project.

“It’s going to be a new product, it’s going to bring new experiences,” Amon said, discussing what will come out the mixed reality partnership.

“But what I really expect to come out of this partnership, I want everyone that has a phone to go and  buy companion glasses to go along with it,” Amon added.

Further, Amon noted that “AI is going to run on the device. It’s going to run on the cloud. It’s going to run some in the glass, some in the phone, but at the end of the day, there’s going to be whole new experience.”

Common complaints with AR and VR devices, which have so far typically been large headsets, are that they are not convenient and are also at times uncomfortable to wear. A set of smart glasses could solve this, bringing a stylish device to the mixed-reality market.

“I think we need to get to the point that the glasses are going to be no different than wearing a regular glasses or sunglasses. And then with that, we can get scale,” Amon said. Samsung’s TM Roh, the head of Samsung’s mobile division, said that the company would announce a new “mixed-reality platform” within the year.

Will this news spark Apple to expedite their smartglasses project (01, 02, 03, 04, 05 and more) ? Only time will tell.