Qualcomm working on mixed-reality glasses with Google, Samsung

Qualcomm (QCOM), Alphabet's Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and Samsung (005930.KS) announced a partnership last year, but the specifics remained unclear until recently. It has now it has been revealed in an interview with Qualcomm's CEO that the companies are collaborating on new mixed-reality glasses. TechRadar Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff joins Market Domination to discuss this development.

Ulanoff observes that the market for mixed reality headsets has proven to be "a struggle" for many companies. He references Apple's (AAPL) Vision Pro, noting that while the product is "incredible," it likely hasn't sold the way Apple would have liked. Ulanoff points out that Qualcomm-Google's focus on smart glasses rather than a headset could potentially yield better results.

As far as features, Ulanoff notes to capture consumer attention the glasses have to have two key things. First they have to be "excellent looking," and secondly the display technology must allow for an "overlaying of the world in front of you."

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This post was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

Ever since Qualcomm, Google and Samsung announced a partnership last year, details have been scarce as to what the companies were actually working on that changed earlier today when Qualcomm Ceo revealed in an interview, the tech giants were collaborating on mixed reality glasses.

Joining us now, Lance Olano Tech Radar editor at large, Lance.

Um what I guess I'm trying to figure out how big a deal this is, right?

I, I don't know, I'm still trying to figure out in general how big the market for these types of glasses are is.

So I don't know, what do you think about this whole thing?

I mean, look, the only market for these kinds of things seems to be smart glasses, right?

Um It's been, it's been a struggle for any company selling full blown headsets that either cut you off from reality or mixed reality.

You know, Apple's Vision Pro, which is an incredible product.

I don't think it's selling that well, we don't know for certain Apple is not really telling us very much, but, you know, I just don't think it's turned on the world in quite the way they expected.

And you know, meta has made a decent business of its uh its quest VR headsets, but they're still, they're relatively a niche product.

Now.

The Ray Ban Meta Rayban smart glasses seem to be possibly taking off a little bit better partly because guess what they look just like glasses.

Um Now we've been here about this partnership forever.

It seems and, and uh you know, it was, it was hinted at at the Samsung event in Paris.

It was hinted at again at the Google pixel event and it's just they just keep hints and even what, what uh you know, Qualcomm CEO said is little more than a hint, right?

Oh, now we know it's glasses is not a headset, but no one really expected yet another headset.

But the really interesting thing about what they're talking about now is they've shifted a little bit, right?

It's always been about augmented reality.

That's what the big thing was supposed to be.

But you notice how we talked about A I, you know, the really exciting thing here is a I because what good is seeing mixed reality if there isn't someone in your ear to tell you what you're looking at, what is this thing?

So, I think that's where the excitement is.

That's where people are really interested.

That's where they see the potential.

Uh you know, that's the weight of the entire, you know, technology world right now.

A I, so, you know, it's a good marketing thing too.

It's a good way of getting people interested in this product, which we of course have yet to see.

And Lance, you know, obviously we're waiting for, you have to wait for the product to hit the shelves.

We would need you to give it a test drive.

Lance come back and review it for us.

But I'm just curious, you know, what possibly could be, you know, the, the services, the features that would get you excited about such a device, you know, it's so hard.

Ok, I remember Google Glass, right, which was sort of the first blush of kind of trying to combine uh information with the world in front of you giving you directions, maybe quickly telling you who is this person you're looking at.

But it looked ridiculous.

We felt ridiculous wearing it.

Now we maybe have glasses.

So they've got to be able to do, you know, one, it's got to be excellent looking to the display technology has to be perfect.

So when it's not on, you don't notice it, but when it is on it works in such a way that it actually overlays the world in front of you.

You see six people, you see them all outlined, you see names floating over them.

That's what I want.

Now the power the chip technology, Qualcomm's chip technology, the A R two gen one chips that they've got in there theoretically, they have an power but keep in mind and this is something that uh Qualcomm CEO said that most of the power, the real processing power happens on the phone, right?

That's how they keep these things small.

So, you know, in order to do this magic of being able to identify things, you see, translate words uh for you on the fly.

If someone's talking to another language, all those things that processing power really still can't fit on the, the the glasses if you don't want them to look really big and really large and also have to have really big batteries just to function well.

And Lance does that model make the most sense to you?

In other words, linking them with the phone, is that what we're going to see?

Not just from this product, which again we haven't seen yet, but is that sort of what we might see from the next wave of products?

Yeah, I think that's really everybody's realized that this is the shortest distance between two points, right?

They, they know that they want to get these smart glasses on people's heads, you know, they want them to buy them and no one will buy anything that looks ridiculous, no one will buy anything that is insanely expensive.

You know, look at the vision pro that was so it's so costly that no one is buying it imperatively.

Uh so they want to make it cheap enough and effective enough and good looking enough for it to work and smart glasses seems to be the one to do it.

But again, you know, it's about utility, how much useful we get out of these things.

A lot of us wear glasses.

I wear glasses.

Do I feel the need for that kind of information in front of me?

I remember struggling to really find a good use for Google Glass after a while.

I just didn't know why I was wearing it.

So, you know what is going to be the killer app of these glasses?

And I don't quite know what that is yet.

All right, we'll find out together.

Lance, great to have you on the show.

Thanks for joining us.

It's a pleasure.