With Google expected to officially introduce Google Glass this year, Facebook’s next move after its buyout of a virtual reality headset maker is drawing a lot of speculation.
Mark Zuckerberg announced the takeover of Oculus VR by the social media company for US$2.3 billion (2.5 trillion won) via a blog post on March 25 (local time). He stressed, “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow. Immersive, virtual, and augmented reality will be part of people’s daily lives.”
Previously, Facebook bought a picture-based SNS company, a mobile messaging service provider, and an unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturer, and thus the recent acquisition has helped the firm widen its technological capabilities.
Oculus VR’s virtual reality headset and the augmented reality-based Google Glass are quite similar in concept. But Brendan Iribe, co-founder and CEO of Oculus VR, has different views.
“Google Glass is based on augmented reality, but not real virtual reality,” said the CEO at the Korean Gaming Conference 2013 in September 2013. He added, “Its small screen is not big enough for users to enjoy content.” His remarks mean that genuine virtual reality enables gamers to believe that they are actually within the gaming world.
In 2008, the search engine giant released Google Lively, a virtual three-dimensional social network, and Google Goggles the next year, an image recognition application that allows people to search for information using visual clues from the real world. In 2012, the firm unveiled its wearable device Google Glass. Given its long-term investment in virtual and augmented reality, Facebook’s entry in the virtual reality market is not good news to Google.
The social networking giant announced that it will let Oculus VR run independently until a new product is launched. Currently, the company behind the Rift headset is focusing on virtual reality gaming headsets. Nevertheless, the combination of Oculus VR’s technological capabilities and Facebook’s expertise in a wide range of IT services is expected to create synergy in the future.