Google has shipped over 10 million

Google says it’s shipped 10 million of its Cardboard digital actuality viewers since they first appeared in 2014. The corporate celebrated the quantity , together with a pair extra statistics: individuals have made 160 million downloads of Cardboard apps on Google Play, and 30 Cardboard titles have over one million downloads apiece. The cargo numbers additionally presumably don’t embrace cellular VR viewers that aren’t official Cardboard headsets, however might nonetheless be used with Cardboard apps.

It’s laborious to say how a lot this tells us about demand for Cardboard headsets, since many got out at no cost as promotional instruments. The New York Occasions, mailed over one million of them to print subscribers in 2015, then one other spherical in 2016. However it’s helpful to know what number of are on the market, particularly proper after Sony its far costlier PlayStation VR headset. Google’s final large Cardboard milestone got here in January of 2016, when 5 million headsets shipped.

Alongside this information, Google introduced a couple of new digital and augmented actuality apps. For Daydream, there’s a video app from broadcasting firm Sky, providing 360-degree movies. For its Tango augmented actuality platform, there are three new apps. A Sims app allows you to tour a Sims home, Chelsea Kicker allows you to play with a digital soccer star, and WSJ AR visualizes inventory developments in augmented actuality. None of those are precisely killer apps, however they present continued — if gradual — funding in VR and AR.