Samsung's Apple Vision Pro competitor could launch in March 2025

Just days after Google and Samsung announced a surprise headset for later in 2024, a new report claims that the mysterious device won't launch until March 2025.

Samsung held its big Galaxy Unpacked Summer 2024 event last week on July 10. At the very end of the show, Google's Rick Osterloh came out to reaffirm the two companies' partnership and make a surprise announcement that "a new XR platform is coming later this year."

Two days later, Business Insider released a report about the potential headset, claiming it won't be released until next year.

Neither Google nor Samsung announced any other details about the pending platform, which will supposedly run a unique Android version called Android XR. 

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

The collaboration between Google and Samsung was initially announced at last year's February Galaxy Unpacked event alongside Qualcomm. Until last week's announcement, nothing had been revealed about the potential device. 

A report in June of 2023 suggested that Samsung had scrapped its designs and returned to the drawing board to compete with Apple's Vision Pro headset. Samsung supposedly wants to produce a headset in the $1,000 to $1,500 range while outperforming Apple's device.

The rumor mill has been all over the map on this XR headset, as earlier reports also claimed that the Samsung device would come out this year with one from Sony.

Business Insider says that a developer version of the device will come out in October of 2024, with the consumer version set for March. It's suggested that the delay in news regarding the mysterious device is mainly on Google's end. 

The company has seen a flow of defections from the AR/XR team to other companies like Meta. The company has also been mired in layoffs and team shuffles, like this past April when Google merged its devices and Android groups, among other internal changes.

What this Samsung, Google and Qualcomm collaboration will produce is up in the air now. Will we see a device of some kind this year? Samsung and Google just said something is coming, but we have no other information on the headset. 

Reporting takes time, especially with the off-the-record sources and the need to fact-check information. Business Insider's report could be more accurate, but it also was being investigated before the surprise announcement last Wednesday. It's unclear now if the timeline has changed from BI's information.

It would make sense if a developer version is dropped in October with an early 2025 consumer device, but it's all we currently have.

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