The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit featured a new and robust series of chips designed to unlock the full potential of mobile computing and usher in a new era of AI. As expected, XR and spatial computing were featured prominently at the event. Qualcomm highlighted its leadership in the space alongside many of its partners, who showcased the industry’s most innovative devices. While XR has been a mainstay at Snapdragon Summit for several years, the 2024 iteration of the show featured many new trends for the XR space, such as on-device computing, adequately leveraging LLMs and multi-device orchestration – all powered by a powerful new generation of SoCs.

Counterpoint’s Research Director Marc Einstein sat down with industry veteran and Qualcomm’s SVP and General Manager - XR & Spatial, Zaid Asghar, at the event to learn more about the company’s progress in the space and to get a glimpse of what to expect in the future.

The Interview

Key Takeaways from the Discussion:

New Technologies = New Use Cases

• AI is starting to impact XR devices and creating new use cases for devices beyond connectivity. AI brings contextual awareness to XR solutions which significantly increases their potential utility.

• For example, devices like Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses enable everyone to have a personal assistant, which will eventually be available both via the cloud and on-device. Their functionality goes far beyond taking photos and videos.

• In the future, XR devices using AI could tell you how to prepare a recipe or could identify people who you meet at a conference.

A Multi-device Connected Future on the Horizon

• Another key trend that emerged is how smart devices, including XR devices, can work in tandem to fully leverage the capabilities of AI.

• For example, an XR device can run a 3-billion parameter model, a smartphone can run a 7-billion or 10-billion parameter model, a PC can run a 15-billion parameter model, and a car can run a 30-billion parameter model. All these combined represent a significant amount of computing power which can then be used to enable AI applications.

• Intelligent devices and networks are critical to make this happen.

GenAI Enters the Picture

• Generative AI is also an important technology in terms of creating robust XR solutions.

• The ability to both create and augment virtual and mixed reality worlds will be easier to realize using generative AI down to the individual level. Translation capabilities using the technology will create truly global virtual communities.

Qualcomm Continues to Bolster XR Ecosystem

• Qualcomm has been developing XR perception technologies such as hand tracking, plane detection, and six DoF head tracking, or basically SLAM-like technologies, for over 15 years.

• The company also actively works with partners and ODMs to create reference designs.

• The community of developers using the Snapdragon Spaces SDK has grown to more than 6,000 users.

Don’t Forget About Enterprise Opportunity

• While much of the fanfare surrounding XR devices is in the consumer space, there is also a large and growing opportunity in the enterprise space.

• Using AI-enabled XR glasses in sectors such as retail, manufacturing and remote work will be significantly more versatile once the next-generation technologies become mainstream.

• AI will also unlock many applications in the healthcare space, such as diagnosing diseases by analyzing user movement metrics and other biomarkers.

Analyst Takeaways:

• Counterpoint Research expects robust growth in the XR space going forward. Our latest forecasts (Q2 2024) say over 45 million XR devices will be shipped by 2030, representing a significant increase over the 2023 number of less than 7 million units.

• It was clear from the event that XR devices are becoming more sophisticated due to, among other things, advances in AI. On-device computing, better and more efficient LLMs, GenAI capabilities and multi-device orchestration were all described several times as game changers for the sector by Qualcomm and its multiple XR partners. All these innovations require faster and more efficient chipsets which were also on display at the show.

• What was also clear from the 2024 Snapdragon Summit was that the ecosystem, while growing, is still in its early stages of maturity and will require more partnerships and collaborations across the industry. The summit had representatives from many, if not most, of the world’s largest tech companies to discuss their joint efforts with Qualcomm in XR development. For the first time, there was a significant push from the automotive industry which shared this enthusiasm. Going forward, representatives from other industries such as content and enterprise verticals will also join initiatives to make XR a truly ubiquitous technology.