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The race in the extended reality (XR) market is heating up as LG Electronics plans to join the competition with the release of an XR device as early as next year.
The announcement comes as LG aims to make an entry into the XR market, following in the footsteps of tech giants like Apple and Samsung Electronics. CEO Cho Joo-wan revealed the company’s XR plans during a press interaction at CES 2024.
LG Electronics has been actively working on XR device development, establishing a dedicated ‘XR Business Department’ within the HE Business Division (the division that makes TVs) this year. LG intended to accelerate development as the XR business gained visibility, Cho explained.
XR encompassing virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), is gaining renewed attention, especially with recent developments like Apple’s pre-sales of the XR headset ‘Vision Pro‘.
LG previously demonstrated a StreamVR prototype, although, it never came out
It turns out that LG has some sort of experience with this product category. While LG’s history in VR has been relatively short-lived with previous attempts like a smartphone-tethered headset in 2016 and a PC-tethered SteamVR prototype in 2017, the company is gearing up for a fresh XR venture.
A previous report from ETNews (in Korean) suggested that the upcoming XR device from LG might leverage the recently announced Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 platform. According to Qualcomm, multiple upcoming XR devices including Samsung’s Google-powered headset and Sony’s ‘special content creation tool‘ have already adopted the chipset.
A South Korean media outlet SBS Biz previously reported about Meta engaging in talks with LG for sourcing OLED microdisplays for its own XR devices. So the company already has at least one key component for the XR product that matches the requirement.
Presence Research expects the global XR market to grow substantially in the near future, with projections indicating a rise from $41.56 billion in 2022 to $859.35 billion in 2030.