Niantic Labs is the first game developer to release the first-ever augmented reality title, which is by far the most successful in the market, “Pokemon Go.” A new report reveals that the gaming studio is collaborating with Qualcomm to develop a new augmented reality (AR) smart glasses. This triggered speculations that Niantic might be planning for the next AR title following “Pokemon Go.”

Niantic Labs is reportedly collaborating with Qualcomm for a new AR smart glasses based on a reference design solution that will combine software, hardware, and cloud services. The upcoming device will be reportedly based on the recently announced ARVR Snapdragon XR2 chip for PC-free and Phone-free headsets, reports CNET. But, contrasting previous AR headsets such as HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap, which are expensive and are marketed for deep-pocketed entrepreneurs, it appears that Niantic and Qualcomm’s plan is to create an affordable AR smartglasses, as well as software that people could use every day, CNET adds.

Pokemon Go
Some of the March Community Day events on "Pokemon Go" have come out in the open. A man plays Nintendo Co.'s Pokemon Go augmented reality game on his smartphone during the Pikachu Outbreak event hosted by The Pokemon Co. on August 9, 2017 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. A total of 1, 500 Pikachus appear at the city's landmarks in the Minato Mirai area aiming to attract visitors and tourists to the city. Getty Images/Tomohiro Ohsumi

This sounds about the same as what Apple is planning about its AR smart glasses, which will reportedly arrive next year. At this time, there is no specific time frame when the design of the AR smartglasses that Niantic and Qualcomm are making will surface, but if the trend is to be believed, next year or the year after might be the time for the arrival of these augmented reality glasses.

Niantic Labs is a major player in phone-based augmented reality. The company has a world-mapped augmented reality system dubbed as Niantic Real World Platform, which “Pokemon Go,” “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite,” and “Ingress” currently run on. The gaming studio has also found a way to encourage developers to create other location-based AR apps through the studio’s platform.

Access to this new collaborative architecture between Qualcomm technologies and Niantic Labs is anticipated to be provided to creators through the Niantic Creator Program when it becomes available, says Niantic Labs Co-Founder and CTO Phil Keslin. It is not yet clear if Niantic will sell its AR smartglasses or if this project is for a new AR title, or to enable others to discover a way to co-develop for phone and headset AR at the same time. We create a reference design to allow other hardware manufacturers to commercialize, says Qualcomm XR Head Hugo Swart.

Software Qualcomm