At last year’s Google I/O conference, Google introduced Cardboard, their inexpensive virtual reality viewer made out of parts you can get for about $20. Assemble the pieces, insert your phone, and start looking at Google VR sites in an immersive way.
From the Google Cardboard Wikipedia page:
The headset specifications were designed by Google, but there is no official manufacturer or vendor for the device. Instead, Google has the list of parts, schematics, and assembly instructions freely available on their website, recommending people assemble one themselves from readily available parts. These comprise a piece of cardboard cut into a precise shape, 45 mm focal distance lenses, magnets, velcro, a rubber band, and an optional near field communication (NFC) tag. A smartphone is inserted in front of the lenses and a Google Cardboard–compatible app splits the smartphone display image into two, one for each eye. The lenses create a distortion effect that sends each half to one eye and creates the impression of a stereoscopic 3D image with a wide field of view.
Now there’s a version of Google’s official Cardboard app for iOS.
You’ll need a VR headset to go with that. Here’s Google’s official Cardboard VR headset page, with instructions for building your own from parts, as well as links to some vendors who will be glad to sell you one. Note that the new version of the Cardboard viewer, released at this week’s Google I/O, is designed to handle larger phones, like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Google is building something big here. They’ve teamed with GoPro to build a rig, called Jump, designed to capture perfect 360 degree panoramas designed to work with Cardboard. They are aggressively pursuing content creators and are building out a new section of YouTube with Cardboard compatible immersive video.
This approach is perfect for Google. By pushing out inexpensive headsets, releasing the designs into the public domain, Google is building an audience, not pursuing dollars.
At the same time, they are quietly building a content library for that audience to consume. They are creating an ecosystem, but one without any licensing requirements. The bigger the audience the better, which is why Google is inviting iOS users to the party. This new ecosystem will overlap nicely with Apple’s own ecosystem.
Cardboard is a nice business strategy all the way around.