Google Cardboard VR Device Passes 500K Units Shipped

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Tech giant announces new developer tools, opens Google Play store for smartphone-aided system
The cardboard virtual reality headset shown off by Google earlier this year is getting its own section on the Play store, as well as new tools for developers, as the tech giant looks to take on the new Samsung/Oculus Gear VR.
The announcements came via Google’s developers blog, which touted that over 500,000 Google Cardboard devices had shipped and that there were “dozens” of VR experiences compatible with the system now available in a new Google Play collection. Those offerings “range from test drives to live concerts to fully-immersive games,” the company added.
In addition, Gizmodo’s Eric Limer said that the Mountain View, California-based company also announced plans to build calibration settings into the VR device’s software development kit (SDK) to ensure that VR apps work smoothly with all different types of Cardboard viewers. They also plan to hire more experts to work on new projects for the unique device.
Google has previously touted Cardboard as an effort to make VR more accessible to the average person, requiring less expensive hardware by using Android smartphone technology to drive the experience. It is essentially a box-like piece of cardboard that transforms handsets into basic, no-frills VR headsets, and the accompanying SDK kit allows developers to create VR software as simply as building a regular web or mobile app, the company added.
“Released first back at Google I/O 2014 earlier this year, the fold-up piece of cardboard with two glass lenses and a metal washer for a button was released basically in secret,” said Chris Burns of SlashGear. “Now just a few months later, Google has released their homepage for the unit and a dedicated section on Google Play. Now, they mean business.”
Google also announced that it would be expanding its efforts in helping other people produce Cardboard viewers. Having already made the specifications open-source earlier this year, the company announced the release of new building specs created with specific cutting tools in mind, and said that they would also help makers tweak the viewing experiences to a device’s unique optical layout by allowing them to define the viewer’s base and focal length.
The announcement comes following the recent release of Gear VR, the phone-based virtual reality system co-created by Samsung and Oculus that, like Cardboard, is essentially “just a face-based holder for your phone,” Limer said. Unlike Google’s device, Gear VR is “heavy duty,” and while it is likely to compete with Sony’s Morpheus unit for higher-end VR systems, he noted that phone-based VR technology is “showing a lot of potential.”
“The growth of mobile, and the acceleration of open platforms like Android make it an especially exciting time for VR,” Google Cardboard Product Manager Andrew Nartker said in that Wednesday developer’s blog post. “Here’s to the cardboard box, and all the awesome it brings,” he added. “There are more devices, and more enthusiastic developers than ever before, and we can’t wait to see what’s next!”
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