It was an affordable formula for bringing virtual reality to the masses, but Google decided to cancel the sale of Google Cardboard, a product so simple it’s basically folded cardboard that is a mobile phone is located.
With Google Cardboard, you can put a smartphone in a die-cut box that doubles as a VR viewer
Die cut for Take the form of a VR viewer (Virtual Reality), the Google Cardboard contains the smartphone that the user already has. The set is rounded off by two small plastic lenses that are inserted into the eggs provided in order to enhance the image displayed on the smartphone screen and to achieve a rudimentary effect of virtual reality helmets. All in exchange for the $ 15 that google charges. Or billed because the sale of this product was announced.
Paperboard was available from the Google Online Store, but has now disappeared. It launched in 2014, the same year that Facebook acquired Oculus for $ 2 billion, and since then the virtual reality industry has grown enough to take hold a growing niche, especially in the area of leisure and video games, with alternatives such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest or PlayStation VR.
Cardboard’s early success is evident in the more than five million units sold in the first year and the more than 25 million app installs that are compatible with this viewer in the same period.
Now, Google is no longer selling this rudimentary but practical and affordable VR viewer, but is confirming its support for the project Open source of virtual reality experiences. This is another step in a process of phasing out this sector, as evidenced by the recent completion of Exhibitions, its educational app in virtual reality.
The truth, however, is that after the proposal was further developed with the Daydream View viewers two years later, the truth is that from Mountain View they later didn’t show too much initiative in this area, but rather seem To have chosen augmented reality This does not require any additional devices, but the smartphone itself, e.g. B. the navigation through Live View Maps.
