It looks like Google is forging ahead in 2016 with its own virtual reality division, giving other companies like Facebook and Microsoft a run for their money. Bavor, vice president of product management, oversaw some of Google’s key apps, including Gmail, Drive and Google Docs, which will now be taken over by Senior Vice President Diane Greene, Re/code said.
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Kyncl’s overall point during his Q&A session was that virtual reality is the future of digital video, YouTube will be the place to host that video, and that Cardboard will be the easiest way to view it.
Google has been partnering with media companies like the New York Times using Google Cardboard, a cheap VR headset powered by a user’s smartphone.
Google’s only entry into the virtual reality space so far is Cardboard, a low cost virtual reality headset created to be a simple introduction to the concept of virtual reality.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Clay Bavor, vice president of product management for Google Inc., will now lead the virtual reality division at Google. The move comes at a time when Google, at least relative to competitors like Facebook, has moved slowly with its VR efforts.
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Now, it appears Google is making a long-term bet on the success of virtual reality and its own investment, the currently productless but buzzworthy Magic Leap, an augmented reality firm that’s raised almost $600 million in equity funding.
