Samsung and Google have Project Moohan finally announcedtheir long-awaited XR headphone collaboration, I’m cautiously optimistic that Meta may finally have a real challenger for the XR throne, if only because I’m a little jaded Recommend the latest Quest VR headset As the best choice for people to buy – they are great, but variety would be even better.
However, I worry that both companies may have made the same mistake apple with it Apple Vision Pro. I’m not talking about price – at least not yet, since we don’t know how much the Moohan will cost (Samsung’s suggestion: it should ideally cost under $1,000) – but I’m considering one factor that’s just as important: software.
I’ve tested a lot of VR headsets, and my main issue with every non-Meta device is its software. When it comes to standalone headphone experiences, Quest’s offerings are second to none, thanks to its vast library that offers variety and is stocked with exclusives you won’t find anywhere else.
Project Moohan will reportedly have its own set of extensive Android apps at launch, but much like the Apple Vision Pro, these will be ports of existing phone and tablet apps. Yes, interacting with them in VR brings a sense of novelty; however, Vision Pro has proven that novelty alone is not enough to transform a device and make it a worthy replacement for our phones, tablets, and laptops .
What we really need is a true Moohan exclusive; I’m talking about Google and Samsung competitors Batman: Shadow of Arkham. By releasing Moohan’s developer kit now, the companies are at least giving app creators a head start, so they expect to have some great exclusives ready for launch day, which the companies currently suggest will be sometime in 2025. time.
That said, Apple also made early development kits available to developers, but that proved insufficient. Lack of time was certainly a factor – software development doesn’t happen overnight, and less than 12 months’ notice was clearly not enough for Vision Pro.
Financial risk also plays a role. Developing an app isn’t cheap, and developing an app for an unproven system carries more risk than normal – if you don’t know how many people will own the system, you won’t be able to accurately judge what your expected revenue will be. How many. As we’ve seen, Meta found a way around this chicken-and-egg situation by having its Reality Labs division pour money into VR and MR software studios in exchange for exclusive access to their creations on the Quest right.
Yes, Meta’s Reality Labs strategy is financially reckless — the company’s division is hemorrhaging cash on a scale that even the most cunningly “disruptive” Silicon Valley startups can only dream of — but it’s growing get rewarded.
Given the capabilities of the Quest 3, Quest 3S, and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, it’s impossible to identify competitors in their respective categories (XR or AI wearables) and recommend other products. So if Google and Samsung want to achieve what Meta has achieved, they might be willing to put their collective wallets out there.
You can’t just say “AI” and stop there
Instead, Google and Samsung’s strategy appears to be Gemini’s commitment to promoting artificial intelligence capabilities. However, simply announcing that “Gemini will see what you see and hear what you hear” and refusing to elaborate doesn’t make much progress for the developers or us.
Meta AI exists in Quest, but it’s not exciting, so forgive me if I think the prospect of Gemini on Moohan sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry.
If Gemini offers some of the tangible potential use cases Google and Samsung are talking about – one example I often mention is chatbot It can generate virtual objects that you can interact with based on your prompts – I might not be that skeptical. But just saying Moohan has artificial intelligence and stopping there doesn’t cut it.
If we’re talking about the AR glasses promised by Samsung and Google, though, that’s a different story entirely. The personal assistant can share your experiences to help it react, such as providing real-time advice on what groceries to buy for dinner, or how to get to your destination on time based on crowds and delays, or providing flight information about landmarks you’re passing. Details – This is actually quite useful. But home headphones with the same functionality aren’t quite as useful.
To that end, there’s the question of whether Samsung and Google — just like Apple — want to make a pair of headphones. I don’t think headsets will become obsolete — just as phones and laptops coexist, I believe AR glasses and XR headsets will coexist — but it does seem like Google and Samsung’s expertise will help more people move AR glasses around.
That lines up with what both companies have told us about their headsets and glasses so far, and the AR glasses I’m most excited to try out feel like a less-than-interesting afterthought despite Moohan launching them first.
There are so many unknowns surrounding Moohan that I’m reserving judgment for now – but Google and Samsung need to proceed with caution, or their Vision Pro rivals could end up being Vision Pro clones in all the wrong ways.