Although you didn’t heartoo muchabout it on Android Police this week, Apple’s annual developer conference dominated the tech industry over the last few days. Alongside a shiny new 15" MacBook Air and some iterative updates to its lineup of operating systems, the company announced Vision Pro, a new “spatial computing” (read: mixed reality) headset coming next year for the eye-watering price of $3,500. Putting aside what you think about the device — personally, I’d kill to watch movies on it, as long as someone else was footing the bill — it’s hard not to think aboutGoogle’s own attempts in this space, and whether or not the company should give it another shot.
Believe it or not, it’s been more than a decade since Google first publicly debuted Glass, its attempt at a wearable AR headset.Glass failed in typical “Google graveyard” fashion— it was an expensive, niche device that was open primarily to developers and the earliest of adopters, failed to find a real reason to exist, and was caught up in a hype cycle powered by a concept video that overpromised. Even today, the things Glass was promising to do haven’t found their way into an attractive pair of standard glasses; if the technology was there, you can bet Apple’s headset wouldn’t look like a pair of ski goggles.
Google also tried its hand at VR, first through itslow-cost Cardboard projectbeforemoving onto Daydream. Phone-based VR always felt like a fad destined to fail; even Samsung, which saw the most success in this field, eventually ended support for its Gear VR products. Virtual reality has certainly seen more widespread adoption than augmented reality, at least in terms of hardware. The Meta Quest 2’s low cost helped make it one of the most adopted VR headsets, with the company claiming nearly 20 million units sold back in March.
Obviously, Apple will not have that low price on its side, nor is it trying to hit mass adoption with this first-gen product. But with Meta pushing forward with the upcoming Quest 3 and companies like Sony continuing to invest in gaming-focused headsets, it’s clear the market is there. We also knowGoogle is working on some kind of AR projectseemingly meant to rival what Apple debuted this week, with the latest word suggesting theecosystem and hardware teams have been dividedfor maximum efficiency. And as easy as it is to forget, we also saw thosetranslation AR glasses at I/O last year, although who knows when — or if — those are still in the works.
Google kills projects all the time, both internally and following years of effort, so regardless of what plans the company has up its sleeve, we’re turning the question over to you. Should Google focus its efforts on giving VR or AR another shot? Or does the company have enough irons in the oven worthy of more attention?
