According to Bloomberg, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) plans to launch a $200 stand-alone virtual reality (VR) headset next year. The device will reportedly be built with the help of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. This upcoming VR headset, Bloomberg reports, will be powered by a Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) "Snapdragon mobile chip." Image source: Qualcomm. If I had to guess, I'd bet on this headset being powered by the current Snapdragon 835 mobile chip. What could this mean for Qualcomm? Let's take a closer look. If the future of VR is mobile, Qualcomm is well-positioned Quite a lot of the relatively popular virtual reality headsets are, indeed, powered by mobile processors since those headsets require users to place their smartphones into the headset. The smartphone, in that case, provides the processing power as well as the display. However, those solutions are generally not as robust as devices that plug into personal computers. The headsets that plug into personal computers have access to much greater computational power than is typically found in mobile devices, since VR-capable personal computers tend to have high-performance (and relatively power hungry) CPUs and graphics processors. That said, if the long-term future for virtual reality (as well as augmented reality) headsets calls for "untethered" devices, such as the device that Facebook is reportedly working on, then Qualcomm could be well-positioned. Why? Qualcomm is the leading merchant vendor of mobile applications processors, particularly for high-end devices, and since these virtual reality headsets seem to have very similar power/performance requirements as high-end smartphones, Qualcomm's technology should be right at home here. Additionally, companies like Apple and Samsung, which build their own mobile applications processors for their respective high-end smartphones and thus have significant low-power applications processor development expertise, should be well-positioned, too. Focus on the bigger picture, for now I don't think Qualcomm selling chips to Facebook for stand-alone Oculus headsets is, alone, likely to be a game changer. However, if over the long-term stand-alone virtual reality headsets become very popular and many device makers decide to enter the market themselves, Qualcomm should be in a good position to provide chips (as well as other platform components, such as Wi-Fi/RF chips) to them. A large market filled with many competitors would be the ideal situation for Qualcomm in this case. Now, of course, Qualcomm won't run unopposed in this market. I wouldn't be surprised if, should the market for stand-alone VR headsets become large, some of the most powerful players decide to roll their own applications processors for this market. Indeed, Qualcomm arguably faces significant competition in the high-end smartphone market today from companies that roll their own chips. Moreover, in robust market, Qualcomm would likely face competition from traditional mobile chip competitors (e.g., MediaTek) as well as companies like graphics specialist NVIDIA and microprocessor giant Intel, both of which have expressed their respective desires to participate in the virtual reality industry. Nevertheless, if stand-alone VR headsets don't significantly cannibalize high-end smartphones, any VR-related business should be incremental to Qualcomm. A focus on competitive pressures this early in the game (if it even ultimately proves to be a game worth playing) probably isn't a good use of investors' time. 10 stocks we like better than QualcommWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Qualcomm wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017Ashraf Eassa owns shares of INTC and Qualcomm. Ashraf Eassa is short shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends AAPL, Facebook, and NVDA. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends INTC. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.