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Samsung is significantly falling behind in the rush to bring augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices to market, partially due to the company's "obsession" with foldable smartphones,
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To stay relevant, market observers are warning that Samsung may need to find a partner that already has content or a platform in exchange for chip expertise, similar to the relationship between Qualcomm and Microsoft. Qualcomm has partnered with Microsoft to move into the AR and VR space, on the back of its experience developing chips specifically for these sorts of devices. Qualcomm is now developing an AR chip specifically for Microsoft's AR glasses and helping it achieve a slimmer, lighter design by reducing the chip's energy requirements. Samsung could seek a similar arrangement with another stakeholder.
Errrrrrrrrrr. Samsung needs a chip partner?????? WTF are these "analysts" smoking?
This is article is like a post CES , tech porn , mindfart for clickbait. Metaverse hype train.
1. Samsung
has a chip business already.
" ... but from now on the company is committed to spending $15 billion a year on its LSI and semiconductor production operations.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-ups-research-and-capex-spending-dollar150-billion-by-2030 ..... "
Samsung to build P3 fab for DRAM & logic production
www.tomshardware.com
2. That has it own SoC development teams.
"... Samsung says the GPU uses AMD's RDNA 2 architecture, the same as AMD's Radeon desktop GPUs, and will bring "hardware-accelerated
ray tracing" to mobile devices. ..."
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/samsung-announces-exynos-2200-with-amd-xclipse-gpu/
Samsung is trying to 'dump' Qualcomm SoC in their devices; not sign them up for more component contracts.
Samsung does and will make Qualcomm chips, but don't necessarily need them to be in the VR device revenue flow.
Is Samsung's refactoring of AMD RDNA2 architecture going to work? Decent chance. Benchmarks in several months will tell.
3. AR/VR headsets probably are not going to get rid of smartphones any time soon. It is a different business. Smart phones have gotten to the large, bloated size. When using the phone there is a trade-off in gained utility in many situation of having a larger screen. When not using the phone (like most of the actual time have the phone if not a screen time 'crack' addict') it is a disadvantage in mobility as more awkward to carry.
Not surprisingly the 'Flip" is doing better than the "Fold" ( latter does little for pocket-ability and costs more ).
4. Samsung doesn't have to be in a "monkey see, monkey do" mode and copy everything the others are doing at the same time. None of those others have a fab business. Why aren't they billions and focus behind? Trying to do 'everything' is part of Samsung's problem as much as it is an asset. Perhaps this is also a Korean spin where Samsung has to do everything so that Korea is in the mix. But still diminishes what folks are doing for a projected growth bubble in the future.
P.S.
. ....
Google has an operating system Android, Microsoft has Xbox and Sony has PlayStation. It's risky for Samsung to roll out XR devices, so it has no choice but to stick to foldable smartphones. It's risky for Samsung to roll out XR devices, so it has no choice but to stick to foldable smartphones....
Sheesh. Samsung's smarphones run Android. If a Google Android fork comes to XR devices what is going to "block" Samsung? Nothing. Just like the smartphones.
The Xbox and PlayStation are only paths to a tethered headset. That is going to do very little for AR.
Someone pays these people to be "analysts" ?
