As some of the world’s largest tech companies look beyond smartphones and into the world of Virtual Reality (VR), Google as always doesn’t want to be left behind. According to a recent report on the Financial Times, the world’s most powerful company intends to release a new VR headset for smartphones this year.
This new headset will be an improvement to the Cardboard mobile VR viewer released in 2014. Unlike Cardboard which relies on its own app, Google intends to make the new VR set compatible with a lot of Android devices by embedding new software into its Android OS. It will also feature better lenses, sensors and will come in a solid plastic casing, similar to Facebook’s Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR.
Although the company declined to comment, a recent comment made by Sundar Pichai, Google’s Chief executive gives strong reasons to believe that his company is indeed working on plans to release a better VR headset this year. Pichar said during Alphabet’s earnings call last week that Cardboard was “just the first step” in its VR efforts. “Beyond these early efforts, you’ll see a lot more from us and our partners in 2016,” he said.
With Facebook about to release its much anticipated Oculus Rift headset and considering HTC, Samsung and Sony have all invested heavily into their VR platforms in recent years, it will indeed be interesting to see if and how consumers rapidly adopt the VR headsets being pushed at them. It’ll also be interesting to see which one of the growing number of players in the VR space captures the hearts and pockets of the most customers and why.