Qualcomm Collaborates with EnlightXR to Accelerate Expansion of XR Ecosystem in China

Qualcomm is actively promoting its XR ecosystem in China. Earlier this year, Qualcomm announced a partnership with China Mobile for the XR market. On April 17th, it further announced a collaboration with EnlightXR to provide localized services and technical support for Snapdragon Spaces XR developer platform.

EnlightXR will offer localization assistance for the Unity and Unreal Engine’s Snapdragon Spaces developer kit. Additionally, it will provide tools and technical support to help with adapting and integrating the Snapdragon Spaces software platform and interface.

EnlightXR will provide support for hardware application and delivery in the Snapdragon Spaces developer kit, as well as facilitate the development of communities. The launch of the Snapdragon Spaces developer kit is anticipated in China during the summer of 2023. Qualcomm Ventures has also invested in EnlightXR as part of the previously launched Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, which was established to invest up to $100 million in innovative developers and companies building immersive experiences across AR, MR and VR.

Qualcomm has been investing significant efforts in the XR software and hardware domain for quite some time. In November 2021, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon Spaces platform to facilitate head-mounted AR development toolkits for developers. This platform enables developers to create tailored AR content for chips, with the aim of transforming their ideas into reality and revolutionizing head-mounted AR possibilities through mature technology and open cross-device platforms. Furthermore, at the Snapdragon Summit held in November 2022, Qualcomm unveiled its inaugural chip that is exclusively designed for AR glasses.

Several OEM manufacturers, such as Lenovo, LG, Nreal, OPPO, PICO, Rokid, Sharp, TCL, Vuzix and Xiaomi have already announced the development of XR products based on Qualcomm chips. They are currently at different stages of development.

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In February, Qualcomm released its latest financial report which revealed that the company’s semiconductor business revenue for Q1 of fiscal 2023 was $7.892 billion, representing an 11% year-on-year decrease due to the downturn in the semiconductor industry. The mobile chip business revenue also decreased by 18% year-on-year to $5.754 billion. However, there were positive results from other areas of the company as IoT and automotive chip businesses achieved revenues of $1.682 billion and $0.456 billion respectively, with year-on-year growth rates of 7% and 58%.