Samsung just suggested that its smart glasses are delayed and not dead

• Samsung is working with Google and Qualcomm on an Extended Reality device.

• The device, which was supposed to be unveiled in 2024, appears to have hit a roadblock. According to Samsung, it is still “planned to be launched in the future.”

• Samsung’s latest earnings report hints at the device’s possible release in 2025.

It’s an open secret that Samsung and Google have something up their sleeve in the Extended Reality (XR) department, with Qualcomm also involved to some extent.

Samsung president TM Roh confirmed in early 2023 that the South Korean tech giant was working on an XR device and said it was “coming”, indicating the device will arrive in the near future. 2023 rolled by, but beyond that we didn’t hear much about Samsung’s expanded reality device. Apple, on the other hand showed his Vision Pro and then released it in 2024.

Fast forward to earlier this year, we learned that Samsung was initially planning to launch the XR headset in the first quarter of 2024, which would likely compete with the Apple Vision Pro. That didn’t work out either. It was then reported that a developer version of the headset will be released in October 2024. Today is Halloween, October 31st, and it doesn’t appear that an early version of the headset has made its way to developers.

At the time, insiders suggested that the consumer version of the headset would eventually launch sometime in the first quarter of 2025, possibly in March. Qualcomm then provided additional context, suggesting that the in-development device will offer a mixed-reality experience with the wearable form factor of smart glasses.

The XR device will ‘strengthen the connectivity’ between Samsung products

While the chip giant didn’t give any hints about the possible launch of the device, the 2025 timeline now seems to offer the highest likelihood of a release, especially after what Samsung just noted in its latest earnings report.

For starters, the tech giant confirmed that the Galaxy S25 series will launch in the first half of 2025, which is in line with the previous release cycles of the S-series flagship. Samsung also confirmed plans to improve its suite of Galaxy AI features “to drive innovation in everyday life” and help boost sales of the series.

In the same section, Samsung emphasized that it plans to further enhance its Samsung Health ecosystem with the Galaxy Ring, but more importantly, it wants to “strengthen the connectivity experience between (its) products, such as the planned XR (extended reality) device ). be launched in the future.” The statement was part of a section that was not explicitly titled “2025 Outlook,” but read as such.

Elsewhere, in a separate earnings conference call, highlighted by @Jukanlosreve (via 9to5Google), Samsung indicated that it plans to offer cheaper foldable products in the future, even going so far as to “consider ways to lower barriers to entry so that more customers can actually experience foldable products.” The goal for the regular (expensive) foldable models remains to make them slimmer and lighter, with a “differentiated, premium cover-screen design” for the upcoming Z Flip models.