While the South Korean giant Samsung is working on two new VR headsets, the tech company sees more of an opportunity in the AR niche.
Samsung's VR Plans
Samsung is already involved in the virtual reality (VR) space with its Samsung Gear VR headset, and the company is pretty successful with it so far. According to The Street, Samsung VP Sung-Hoon Hong said on Thursday, Dec. 15, at the Virtual Reality Summit in San Diego, that his company has two new virtual reality headsets under the development.
The first one is called the Samsung Gear VR 2. Hong said that the VR gadget will be unveiled in a short time. On the other side, Samsung will base its another headset upon existing augmented reality technology from start-up VR company Magic Leap and Microsoft's HoloLens.
The South Korean company's VR business has already become quite popular. According to market analytics firm IHS Markit, since the product's launched in November 2015, the tech company will end the year 2016 with 5.4 million Gear VR headsets sold in total. This achievement will give Samsung the largest virtual reality installed base out of all major VR headsets coming from the top brands.
Samsung's AR Plans
Hong also said that going forward, in the near future Samsung could focus more heavily on augmented reality (AR) instead of VR. According to Wearable Zone, Hong considers that AR has much better business development for Samsung. At the at the Virtual Reality Summit in San Diego, Samsung VP Hong said that augmented reality is what the company is aiming for.
According to Slash Gear, Samsung may launch its AR glasses not long after the Galaxy S8 and the newest Gear VR headset is unveiled in February 2017. The company might launch then a new edition of the Gear VR, as well as a new pair of smart glasses never revealed before. Hong actually prompted Samsung's fans to come with ideas for the upcoming AR glasses.
