Google has a graveyard of products in the AR/VR space. In 2019, it killed DayDream, its virtual reality headset. This year, it shelved Project Iris, an augmented reality headset. While Google was on a killing spree, Apple and Meta were doubling down on the AR/VR category. 

Apple worked on Vision Pro, which is slated to ship early next year, with a belief that spatial computing is the future, while Meta continues to invest in the Metaverse. 

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg is still high on the idea of Metaverse. To keep the conversation around AR/VR alive, Mark Zuckerberg recently appeared in an interview with Lex Fridman that took place in the Metaverse. One thing that caught everyone’s attention was the use of photorealistic avatars instead of cartoony ones. Furthermore, with Meta launching Quest 3, Zuckerberg is proving that AR/VR wearable technology is the future and is here to stay. 

Following in Meta’s footsteps Apple also plans to create photorealistic avatars for Vision Pro during FaceTime calls. On one hand, Apple is betting big on its Vision Pro, while Google appears to be struggling, unable to chart its next course.  

Meanwhile, OpenAI is also mulling to venture into hardware products as per the recent reports. It wouldn’t be a surprise if OpenAI announces an “XR headset’ at its first developer conference OpenAI’s DevDay.

Is Starline the last hope?

As of now Starline is the only hope for Google to challenge Quest 3 and Vision Pro. Back in 2021, Google introduced Starline, its attempt to connect the world. It is a 3D video chat booth that aims to replace a one-on-one 2D video conference call with an experience that feels like you’re actually sitting in front of a real human being. 

The system uses advanced AI to build a photorealistic model of the person the user is talking to, and projects that onto a light field display with a unique sense of volume and depth. The result is a lifelike image of the other person as if they were right in front of you. 

However, the problem with the original Starline was that it  took up an entire room, requiring complex hardware such as infrared light emitters and special cameras to create a live 3D model of the person. 

To tackle this problem, Google earlier this year, developed new AI techniques that only require a few standard cameras to produce higher quality, lifelike 3D images. With this Google was able to shrink the size of Starline from that of a restaurant booth to that of a traditional video conferencing system. 

Google might be putting a lot of effort into Starline to keep it alive but it would be a tedious task for users to adopt it as go to device to interact and hold professional meetings as it is not portable while on the other hand users can easily carry Quest 3 or Vision Pro.  

In terms of pricing, the previous version of Starline was rumored to be priced at $10,000. In contrast, Apple’s Vision Pro is priced at $3,599, and the starting price for Quest 3 is $500. 

It would be very difficult for Google to convince users to buy Starline when they can go for the above two options at a considerably cheaper price. Starline would have to significantly reduce its price to become mainstream.

Google’s Hardluck with AR/VR 

Despite killing ‘Project Iris’, there was still a glimmer of hope that the company might launch a mixed reality headset by partnering with Samsung and Qualcomm under the name ‘Project Moohan’.

However, recent reports indicate that Google’s Project Moohan might not see the light  due to tussles  between Google and Samsung. According to reports, Samsung is likely to have more influence over product features in this partnership, and the company is not interested in Google’s other hardware offerings. 

To add salt to Google’s wound, the former head of operating systems on Google‘s augmented reality team, Mark Lucovsky, departed from the company earlier this year. In his tweet, Lucovsky cited “changes in AR leadership” and concerns about Google’s commitment and vision in the field as factors influencing his decision to leave. In February, Google’s head of VR Clay Bavor also left the company to start his own AI startup. 

With all the turbulence in the AR/VR ecosystem of Google, it will be interesting to witness how Google manages to fight competition against Apple and Meta, which are way ahead in this race.