Samsung will enter the VR and AR market with a 'Vision Pro' style display in 2027 or 2028

Apple's Vision Pro mixed reality headset is a powerful, high-end device with cutting-edge microOLED display technology. It can deliver incredibly immersive visuals with unmatched clarity. Apple's claims that Vision Pro gives you the equivalent of a single 4K TV per eye is backed by a recent iFixit teardown of the device, which details that each pixel on each tiny display is the size of a single red blood cell.

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Apple Vision Pro's microOLED displays offer pixel counts comparable to two 4K TVs.

With leaked 'Bill of Materials' reports indicating that it costs Apple around $456 to obtain the two microOLED 4K display panels from Sony, it's not hard to see why the Vision Pro is sold for $3,499 USD. Sony is Apple's only supplier of microOLED panels, which could be the case for a while because Samsung is predicting that it will take at least three to four years for the tech to become commercially viable.

"The market potential of micro OLEDs installed in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is considerable, but I think the market will start in earnest around 2027 to 2028," Samsung Display CEO Choi Joo-sun said at a recent Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) event.

So, regarding Samsung's potential Apple Vision Pro-style display technology, the company will spend the next two to three years investing in manpower and research and development (R&D) before the microOLED market truly begins. As Samsung provides OLED panels for Apple's iPhone division, the Vision Pro will be sourcing its display tech from other suppliers until Samsung is ready to enter the microOLED market.

According to reports, Apple seeks alternative OLED displays for the current or future Vision Pro models from Chinese companies SeeYa and BOE. As one of the biggest suppliers of display technology, it's only a matter of time before Samsung begins to offer its own microOLED display technology for customers like Apple and perhaps power its own take on a mixed-reality headset. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until 2027 at the earliest to see what that will be.

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