Google services such as photos, YouTube and Street View maps will also come to Daydream. Apple is rumored to be working on a similar device based around its voice-assistant software Siri, too.
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The major launches suggest Google is trying to turn around its hardware fortunes after the shelving of its vaunted modular smartphone Project Ara and, prior to that, Google Glass. Google is expected to announce more details at the event. But smartphones are evolving into something new.
In hopes of staying ahead of the curve, the company is making its most aggressive leap yet into hardware. Both have the capacity to act as a central control centre for a number of smaller, more niche gadgets.
Gummi Hafsteinsson, product management director on the Assistant engineering team said: “It’s a natural progression of what Google’s been doing for years”. Pushing its own hardware will likely complicate its relationship with Android licensees, analysts said. The phones will have Google’s virtual assistant and artificial intelligence service, Google Assistant, built in. Google’s Chromecast devices can also be controlled by Google Home, with companies like Netflix planning to give users full control through voice commands.
“We are evolving from a mobile-first to an AI-first world”, Pichai said.
If you’re asking Google Home for information, you can also tell it to send that information – such as directions – to your phone, if it doesn’t automatically. Using Personal Assistant’s voice command, you can be automatically taken to a new VR experience without removing the phone from its front slot.
The Google Home device was announced at the Google I/O earlier this year, however its today that we are finally getting a good look at it.
Amazon took a different approach and created the Echo, a device with the sole goal of showcasing the company’s artificially intelligent assistant software, called Alexa.
Plus, Assistant isn’t designed only for the smartphone.
The string of announcements – including the $649 Pixel, a smart speaker for the living room dubbed “Home”, a virtual reality headset, and a new Wi-Fi router – is the clearest sign yet that Google intends to compete head-to-head with Apple, Amazon.com Inc. and even manufacturers of phones using its own Android mobile operating system. Which might, we admit, be the point.
Google makes most of its money from online software and digital ads.
The devices unveiled Tuesday are part of Google’s bold move to design and sell its own hardware, instead of just supplying Android and other software for other companies to make products.
Will it succeed? That’s a hard thing to say, of course. However, going forward Google does have an advantage.
Home will be available for nearly $130 and come with six months of YouTube Red, a $10-a-month ad-free subscription.
And it’s certainly true that one can lead from behind.
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The device will be released in November in the U.S., though it’s unclear when Australians will be getting the product. Or Apple and the iPhone, for that matter.
