[이코노믹리뷰=미국 하와이, 최진홍 기자] Qualcomm unveiled a powerful XR (extended reality) roadmap by unveiling Snapdragon 8 at a summit in Hawaii, USA. While showing interest in the XR strategies of Korean telecommunication companies such as SK Telecom and LG U+, they also announced that they will start the XR ecosystem strategy through their Snapdragon Spaces.
It is also predicted that the XR market will undergo a major change within two years.
I met Hugo Swart, the general manager and vice president of Qualcomm’s extended reality division, in Hawaii, where the summit was held on the 3rd.
XR’s aim is to
After Qualcomm unveiled its first XR platform, XR2, in 2019, the related ecosystem is growing, with Facebook’s successor meta producing the XR2-based Oculus 2 in 2020. This year, the HTC Vide, Focus 3, and Pico Neo 3 were made based on the XR2 one after another.
“In aggregate, since we started our XR journey, we have already launched more than 50 devices,” said Hugo Swart, Qualcomm General Manager and Vice President of Extended Reality (XR). Taking China as an example, I think the market is just starting to open,” he said.
However, the overall market for XR, including VR and AR, has not been fully on track. It is also a disappointment for Qualcomm, which is aiming for the metaverse vision based on XR. Vice President Hugo Swat said, “You don’t need a full virtual world.” “Non-face-to-face environments (such as on-contact, which was activated during the pandemic) will be a big force in the XR market.” As an extension of that, it is also one of the good options to take exercise as a game and see opportunities as a platform in terms of ‘fitness’ and to increase productivity online.
“New technologies are going to take a lot of time to complete,” he said. “The virtual digital and physical worlds are getting more complex, and the next two years will see big changes in the XR market.” At present, the XR market is not growing explosively, and VR and AR have not been able to follow the path of popularization. However, the trend of the times is changing as the convergence of online and offline reality, commonly referred to as the metaverse, is taking place, and it seems that the time is ripe for the advent of the XR era in earnest.
It is also noteworthy that Korean telecommunication companies are exploring various possibilities such as XR. Vice President Hugo Swat said, “The roadmap of Korean telecommunication companies such as SK Telecom, Metaverse Solution (EFriend), and Glass (cooperation with Unreal), which combines smartphones from LG U+, are also actively unfolding.” When Qualcomm unveiled its first XR2 in 2019, SK Telecom announced a picture of Oculus Go, KT sold Pico, and LG U+ collaborated with Unreal. Korea’s XR trend is dominated by telecommunication companies, and this phenomenon is expected to continue for the time being.
Vice President Hugo Swat received a lot of attention when he announced the XR2 at the time, sending love calls to not only Korean telecommunication companies but also Naver and Kakao to participate in the ecosystem.
Meanwhile, he made it clear that the millimeter-wave strategy is an important ‘keyword’ for XR. “While you don’t need 10 gigabits per second (to sustain the platform), it’s true that sustainable throughput is key,” said Hugo Swat, vice president, Hugo Swat. .
He also expressed his will to grow the XR market as a strategy to expand the market by collecting data step by step, saying, “Only training is important” regarding Qualcomm’s XR strategy.
What is Qualcomm’s XR strategy next?
Vice President Hugo Swat said the API developer platform is important for the evolution of XR on the hardware side. “We recently announced Snapdragon Spaces, an AR platform for Android that allows developers to add AR-enabled features to their Android apps,” he said. It is imperative that customers and Qualcomm have an experience that crosses over each other.”
“Components are about an open ecosystem,” he said of Snapdragon Space. “We are working with manufacturers like Lenovo, Motorola and Xiaomi, making technology standards with our partners.” General availability of the platform is next spring.
Finally, he said, “It’s not the next step for XR2 to talk about, but I think it’s important to provide software optimizations that reduce latency by 3x, etc.” For the time being, it is explained that XR2 will complement the shortcomings, expand the ecosystem, and draw a big picture that ultimately leads to the metaverse.
.
