Samsung is making a VR headset for phones and tablets

By Will Fulton May 22, 2014

samsung making vr headset phones tablets future — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Never one to be left out of a hot tech trend, Samsung is throwing its hat into the VR ring with a headset developed for its mobile platforms, Engadget reports. Sources indicate that the product will be announced this very year. That urgency stems from a desire to undercut the press-hogging Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus, both in price and release date. Supposedly developers already have their hands on a prototype that works with current Samsung products like the Galaxy Note 3, but the final product will require more powerful, as-yet-unnannounced next generation phones and tablets.

It is important to note that this is not Samsung’s rumored Google Glass competitor, still supposedly aiming for a September launch. It does, though solidify the impression that the Korean tech giant really does believe that head-mounted displays are the next big thing. Given that Oculus and Google are relative newcomers to the hardware game, I would imagine that Samsung hopes to leverage their well-established manufacturing infrastructure to stake a strong, early claim in this new market.

The headset will have an OLED screen comparable to the Rift’s second dev kit’s and presumably a wired connection to the mobile device. Otherwise details are scarce, as the official line is that they do not comment on rumors and speculation.

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Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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