Qualcomm’s Newest AR Design; Apple’s Gaming Hangup

Since Qualcomm’s chips are so ubiquitous, each new AR or VR reference design from the chipmaker serves as a good yardstick for where glasses and headsets will move over the next few years. The company’s latest design is no different: Qualcomm’s new wireless AR glasses powered by its XR2 chip look positively slim compared to many existing devices. But the limitations of the design are still hard to look past.

Is it larger than an ordinary pair of glasses? Considerably so. Battery life too short? At around 30 minutes for demanding content, absolutely. In that respect, these Qualcomm glasses are like Snap’s developer-only AR Spectacles: a demonstration of progress, but still far away from what many hope for as a baseline pair of “consumer friendly” glasses. My guess is that the unidentified companies that are looking at this latest reference design are contemplating products they might pitch to businesses, rather than consumers.