“Where are the glasses?” I couldn’t help but ask Drew Blackard, Samsung‘s VP of Mobile Product Management, when we sat down shortly after the unveiling of the company’s exciting new Samsung Galaxy XR spatial computing, Gemini AI-centric headset.
Blackard couldn’t share specifics but did acknowledge, “it’s coming soon…And I’ll use those words purposely in the sense that it’s not like a far-out concept.”
Even though the glasses were nowhere to be seen during the Galaxy XR launch, Samsung did announce a pair of lens frames partnerships with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, and Blackard told me they are “nearing the execution phase.”
“You could call today, I guess, a tease.” Even though he promised we won’t have to wait too long, he added that we will not see the glasses “this year.”
I pressed him a bit, though, asking if the release of the Galaxy XR headset and then the glasses was somehow out of order, especially with the rapidly rising interest in smart glasses that either deliver information to your eyes or combine your real world with an augmented one. Is this just a first step?
“I think it is,” said Blackard, “I don’t think it’s out of order. In the sense, they’re so related, and I think the announcement today helped paint the picture.”
Examining an AI heart
With that slight disappointment settled, I steered the conversation back to the new headset, talking about design choices and how they differ in some fundamental ways from what’s already on the market (yes, looking at you Vision Pro).
The new Samsung Galaxy XR headset is a gaze, voice, and gesture-control headset that arrives today (October 21) for $1,799 in the US and Korea.
While there are similarities to the Vision Pro, like the controls and even the external battery pack, it’s also significantly different. First, there’s that price, which is roughly half the price of the Vision Pro. Then there’s the weight, which is at least 65 grams less and arguably across a better-balanced frame.
The big differentiator, though, is Gemini AI. It’s the kind of Apple Intelligence-infused Siri Vision Pro control I wished for but has never materialized.
“It’s an AI device,” said Blackard.
I wondered if Samsung and its partners would’ve brought the Galaxy XR to market two years ago when, for instance, Gemini AI didn’t exist in its current form.
Blackard tried to put it in context for me and maybe, without mentioning them by name, contrast Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm’s approach with that of Apple and its Vision Pro platform.
Starting with the Galaxy S24, it’s been two years since Samsung has been developing AI phones. Lately, it’s even become central to their wearables, like the Galaxy Watch. “This became something that we all believed – Google and Qualcomm included – that was an essential part of the experience,” Blackard told me.
The realization that you need a layer like Gemini inside dates back, in a way, to the Galaxy Gear VR days (that’s right, this is not Samsung’s first VR-ready headset). “User interfaces were challenging on those, or can be, historically,” he said.
Seeing immersive content in front of you doesn’t guarantee, Blackard told me, that you’ll know how to navigate an interface that “can be very complex and overwhelming.”
With Gemini plugged in at a deeper level, there may be no need to learn how to use the interface on Galaxy XR. “You can navigate with your voice, talking naturally, and it becomes a multimodal interface,” noted Blackard.
Being able to engage with the platform in this way is part of what makes Gemini essential to the experience. As is AI being an actual layer in the system, which Blackard told me means it’s not something developers have to put in at an app level because “then you’re dependent on every app developers puting that into the app, and therefore the ability to scale the experience was difficult.”
Three amigos
He went on to describe some of the demos I saw that day, which showed how Gemini helps you navigate in Google Maps or offers tips on how to play a game using Google Circle to search. “Maybe a very specific game, and we at Samsung had no idea that the consumer was going to download that game and start playing it.”
It’s this organic nature of Gemini integrated across the operating system that completes the picture. “It becomes an organic interaction with almost any app that you’re opening,” added Blackard.
Where it might be argued that Apple’s Vision Pro is the product of one strategic and corporate mind, Samsung Galaxy XR is the product of the three partners (and occasional rivals): Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm. It can’t be easy aligning the interests and demands of three tech titans. I asked Blackard if one company naturally took the lead or was considered the tip of the spear. Was it Samsung?
Of course, from the design perspective…Samsung, of course, is leading the way in terms of industrial design and all the research and development that goes into making a product like this.
Drew Blackard, Samsung
“It’s an interesting question, and I would say it’s probably been one of the more collaborative efforts in my time at Samsung. If you just take Samsung smartphones as an example, of course, we use Qualcomm chips, and they’re a very important partner in that. We use the Android operating system; they’re an important partner in that, but ultimately, the end experience is defined by Samsung.”
He adds, though, that owing to the tech requirements, the end experience we see in the Galaxy XR could not have been delivered without the partnership. “Of course, from the design perspective…Samsung, of course, is leading the way in terms of industrial design and all the research and development that goes into making a product like this.”
And yet, because AI is so central to the experience in the form of Gemini, the Galaxy XR would not be coming to market, added Blackard, “without Google having a leading role in terms of software technology enablement….and of course, Qualcomm delivers the platform to build upon.”
In other words, Samsung is the lead with hefty and indispensable support and contributions from Google and Qualcomm.
One thing I noticed is missing from the Galaxy XR is Galaxy AI. Blackard confirmed that the new headset probably isn’t the place for Samsung’s own brand of generative AI.
“The Galaxy AI capabilities, a lot of them are deeply integrated experiences within applications,” said Blackard, who described some of the photo editing and summarization features we’re now familiar with on our Galaxy devices.
“It’s kind of a different in the use cases that we see with XR and back to the multimodal aspects of Gemini AI. It brings to life anything you’re looking at, you can react to, it can understand your voice naturally, and it can respond. So it kind of takes it beyond just the traditional… I think it’s more like: the best solution for the problem has been Gemini AI.”
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
