Samsung and Sennheiser announced a new partnership aimed at bringing the AMBEO Smart Surround earbuds to Android devices. The two companies confirmed the collaboration at the IFA Global Press Conference that took place in Lisbon, Portugal over the weekend. Sennheiser originally announced its AMBEO Smart Surround technology at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year, adding that its connected earbuds are just the first out of many offerings that will be powered by this three-dimensional audio platform. Andreas Sennheiser, Chief Executive Officer at Sennheiser, said that the German audio company opted to collaborate with Samsung in order to ensure its technology receives more credibility and becomes compatible with as many smartphones as possible. The AMBEO Smart Surround earbuds were initially only announced for Apple’s iOS-powered devices, so Sennheiser’s decision to partner with Samsung makes sense in the context of the company setting its sights on the Android ecosystem seeing how the South Korean consumer electronics manufacturer is by far the largest Android OEM in the world.
The partnership will help Sennheiser expand its emerging technology to a larger number of devices, while Samsung will likely use this collaboration as an opportunity to ensure several more unique features for its Galaxy-branded devices. While the aforementioned earphones are currently the only device powered by Sennheiser’s AMBEO Smart Surround technology, the wording of the company’s announcement suggests that the two tech giants will be looking to build upon this collaboration in the future and integrate more 3D audio-enabled equipment into the Android ecosystem in the coming years. Industry watchers also believe that Sennheiser’s technology will further solidify its market presence once virtual reality (VR) gains more mainstream appeal seeing how the very nature of VR hardware and software makes the two compatible with binaural, i.e. 3D audio solutions.
This announcement suggests that Sennheiser might soon launch a new pair of AMBEO Smart Surround earphones compatible with the recently released Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus that will also work with Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note 8 which is expected to hit the market in the second half of the year. More details on Samsung and Sennheiser’s new partnership will likely follow in the coming months.