Microsoft reportedly enlists Samsung’s help to develop Apple Vision Pro competitor

*Header image is referential and showcases the Xreal Air 2. | Image credit — PhoneArena

The introduction of Apple Vision Pro to the XR (Extended Reality) industry seems to have breathed new life into VR. Apple’s premium Mixed Reality headset might not blow everyone away or do everything right, but it’s definitely brought more attention to the industry as a whole. And now a report from Korean outlet The Elec claims Microsoft will be purchasing micro-OLED displays from Samsung for MR devices.

There’s not much information on whether these devices will be headsets or glasses. But they’ll reportedly be used for playing games and consuming passive entertainment media. Whether these games will be PC VR games or games similar to those available on Apple Arcade for Vision Pro is unknown.

Microsoft isn’t the only partner Samsung has for entering the XR industry. The Korean tech giant has also been working with Google on an XR device we know little about. If we do have anything to go on, it’s that Google showed off a pair of AI-powered AR smart glasses at Google I/O this year when demonstrating Project Astra.



It can’t be proven for certain that these companies are jumping into XR because of Vision Pro, but I personally think so. The industry has never had more eyes on it than it does now. Also, there are already reports of an Apple Vision Pro 2 that will allegedly be much cheaper than its predecessor.

Funnily enough, said reports also claim Samsung will be entering Vision Pro’s supply chain. If true, it means Samsung is heavily branching out into the XR panel industry. The company already provides panels for iPhones, so it makes sense to capitalize on a relatively new, burgeoning industry.

When Meta made Quest OS open to third parties, Asus and Lenovo began working on XR devices powered by Meta’s platform. If so many big companies suddenly enter XR, I’m hoping it’ll be the Renaissance era for VR.