A private lending service has appeared for Samsung Electronics' first Extended Reality (XR) headset, the Galaxy XR. The lending fee is 5.9% of the Galaxy XR's sale price (2.69 million won).
According to the industry on the 6th, IP Mall, operated by Metaverse distributor Allip Information & Communication, is currently offering a Samsung Galaxy XR (256GB) rental for 159,000 won per day. Users must apply for a minimum two-day lending. The product is for corporations only, and users must submit a copy of their business registration certificate to be eligible for lending. There is no deposit.
The Galaxy XR is currently available for purchase only in the United States and Korea. Samsung Electronics said additional launch plans are undecided. IT outlet SamMobile reported that Samsung plans to sell the Galaxy XR in more countries in 2026 and that Canada, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom are likely candidates.
From the manufacturer's perspective, the market is expected to expand after gauging the Galaxy XR's reception. Apple likewise first released Vision Pro in the United States in Feb. last year, then introduced it in China (including Hong Kong), Japan, and Singapore in late June of the same year. It then launched in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom in July of the same year.
In the case of Vision Pro, private lending services emerged in regions where the product had not been released, but there are not many lending services for the Galaxy XR at present. In particular, for Vision Pro, a wave of online and offline lending services emerged in China. At the Hobson One shopping mall store in Beijing run by Virtual Reality (VR) Start - Up Visionspace, more than 10,000 customers visited within 23 days of launch. Dozens of Vision Pro lending ads were posted on online flea markets such as Xianyu of Alibaba Group Holdings and Zhuanzhuan, an affiliate of 58.com, in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, and Nanjing. At the time, Vision Pro lending prices ranged from 98 yuan (18,000 won) per hour to 1,500 yuan (280,000 won) per day.
An IP Mall official said, "We recently stocked the Galaxy XR, so the lending response is not yet large." On why it is operated as a corporations-only product, the person said, "For consumers to use it, there need to be many enjoyable games, but the Galaxy XR is a product focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) experiences, so we first targeted interested people such as content developers."