Two of the most important names in XR—headset maker Meta and chip maker Qualcomm—as we speak introduced a “multi-year broad strategic settlement” to collaborate on “personalized digital actuality chipsets” for future gadgets.
Qualcomm, a number one supplier of smartphone processors, was an early mover within the XR area by pushing variants of its Snapdragon cellular processors as excellent to be used in each AR and VR headsets—a play which now sees the corporate’s product within the overwhelming majority of standalone headsets out there in the marketplace as we speak.
Meta has used Qualcomm processors in all of its standalone headsets thus far—Go, Quest, and Quest 2—and is predicted to do the identical in its forthcoming Venture Cambria headset.
At present Meta and Qualcomm collectively introduced they’ve entered right into a “multi-year broad strategic settlement” to work collectively on XR platform improvement. The settlement was a large enough deal that the CEOs of each firms made the announcement collectively in the course of the IFA 2022 convention.
“We’re working with Qualcomm Applied sciences on personalized digital actuality chipsets— powered by Snapdragon XR platforms and expertise—for our future roadmap of Quest merchandise,” stated Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “As we proceed to construct extra superior capabilities and experiences for digital and augmented actuality, it has turn out to be extra essential to construct specialised applied sciences to energy our future VR headsets and different gadgets.”
With the businesses having already labored collectively during the last a number of years, it’s a curious announcement—what provides?
On its face the announcement probably represents a dedication by Qualcomm to make Meta a prime precedence consumer over the subsequent a number of years, devoting extra time to the corporate and providing it extra affect over future Snapdragon XR chips from Qualcomm. And with Meta believing that it’s going to take an entire rethinking of the standard computing structure to make the sci-fi imaginative and prescient of XR a actuality, the businesses will in all probability be prototyping collectively on that entrance as effectively.
However there’s probably one other main motive for this partnership—it brings two allies collectively in opposition to a typical menace: Apple.
Although Apple hasn’t formally introduced any XR merchandise but, all indicators level to an extended historical past of R&D and a need for the corporate to dominate the area. For Meta, which itself needs to regulate the future of XR, that’s an issue. Mark Zuckerberg has been eyeing this potentiality since at the very least way back to 2015, which drove him to purchase Oculus within the first place—in an effort to get out forward of firms like Apple and Google within the nascent XR area.
However Apple is an issue for Qualcomm too… Apple is certain to make use of its personal customized processors (colloquially known as ‘Apple silicon’) in its XR merchandise. By definition then, the better marketshare that Apple has within the XR area, the less Snapdragon chips Qualcomm will promote.
Apple has lengthy been constructing its personal customized processors for its smartphones which has given the corporate and edge over opponents utilizing commodity chips. In the previous few years Apple has additionally begun phasing out third-party processors in favor of its personal chips in its PC merchandise, signaling a maturation of the corporate’s microprocessor design and fabrication capabilities.
For Meta, the partnership with Qualcomm buttresses a strategic vulnerability by giving the corporate a dedicated ally that may make chips which are extremely specialised for XR gadgets.
For Qualcomm, the partnership with Meta is an effort to make sure that Apple doesn’t simply dominate the XR market and snuff out the corporate’s alternative to promote chips to all kinds of non-Apple XR gadget makers.
Finally the partnership is a maneuver in a battle for early floor in a market that the businesses count on will at some point be price trillions of {dollars}.