Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is bursting into Virtual Reality. Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company’s VP of VR Amit Singh confirmed that they had shipped 10 million Cardboard VR sets. Another 160 million Cardboard apps have been downloaded with at least 30 individual Cardboard apps being downloaded 1 million times each.
The numbers are a healthy increase from January 2016, which had 25 million installations of the Cardboard apps. It is an interesting milestone considering Google’s aggressive push into Virtual Reality.
As the name implies, the headset is built with cardboard
The Cardboard headset is basically a revamped edition of the old-school View-Master toys. However, it allows the online watching of videos or photos in 360 degrees. Unlike its competing counterparts, it does not contain heavy-duty expensive cameras.
Nonetheless, it cannot be compared to virtual reality headsets the likes of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Oculus Rift and Sony Corp (ADR)(NYSE:SNE) PlayStation VR, which are more powerful. It is worth noting that it has a firefly cost of $15 and hardly will it require the connection to a Smartphone.
But Google still sees bigger business in selling its Daydream VR headset
The search giant expressed its pride in its Daydream VR headset citing that even though it is expensive, it has more comfort compared to the cheaper Cardboard headset. In fact, it will be pitching it as one of its superior products. New research from VR and video game analyst firm SuperData indicates that the company is likely to ship not less 6.8 million Daydream headsets in 2017.
However, Singh says that close to 50% of content consumption on Daydream is of YouTube content. Nonetheless, “You will start to see significant series coming out this year,” he quotes.
In addition to all the above goodies, Google is also having new content for Tango, its augmented reality platform. The fact that it is a Sims app, it will allow its users to travel around the Sims house. Meanwhile, Alphabet’s stock closed at $56.75 an increase of $11.82 or 1.40%.