Microsoft might be resurrecting its mixed reality business

Microsoft has reportedly struck a deal with Samsung for OLED panels that could power a new line of mixed reality headsets. Korean outlet The Elec reported earlier this week that (as per a machine translation) the partnership is still in its very early stages, with mass production not started until 2026. A source told the outlet the order could be for “hundreds of thousands” of units and that the device would be focused on watching flatscreen gaming and video content, not “metaverse” engagement.

As Road to VR notes, the rumored device sounds like a competitor to Apple’s Vision Pro, which aims to be a large floating flat screen rather than a more complicated augmented or virtual reality system. (How many people want this? Maybe fewer than Apple thought.) Microsoft previously tried the latter with its HoloLens AR headset and its Windows Mixed Reality line of VR headsets, but it downsized its HoloLens team and discontinued Windows Mixed Reality last year.

Samsung announced in 2023 that it would partner with Google (whose AR/VR history is also pretty rocky) and Qualcomm on a new headset, which has been rumored to show up around the end of this year. Microsoft, meanwhile, has been pushing its apps toward the Meta Quest headset for a few years. It’s an exciting amount of potential competition for the mixed reality space — if any of these headsets actually make it out the door.