One of the big pushes throughout last week’s Oculus Connect 4 was the emphasis, as always on creators and on developers. But that was last week, and today saw Samsung take to the stage in San Francisco, California for the Samsung Developer Conference.
It was, however, Google that revealed perhaps the biggest news coming out of the event. That the two tech titans, rivals in the battle for smartphone-based virtual reality (VR) would be uniting their products on the augmented reality (AR) stage.
Taking to that stage was Google’s Vice President of Virtual and Augmented Reality, Clay Bavor. Who confirmed to crowds during the first day’s keynote that the two companies would be bringing Google’s AR creation platform ARCore to not only the Samsung Galaxy S8+ smartphone but the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 phablet. Both of which use the Android operating system developed by Google. Bavor also confirmed that future Samsung phones, presumably in the Galaxy line, would also be receiving ARCore support.
.@claybavor announces upcoming support for #ARCore on @Samsung Galaxy S8+ and Note8 in the #SDC2017 Opening Keynote pic.twitter.com/exPRW6pJLB
— Google VR (@googlevr) October 18, 2017
It’s the latest in a series of announcements in the battle of AR development which began in June this year when Google’s rival Apple first revealed its own AR developer platform called ARKit. Apple, continuing to be vocal about their support for AR over VR. ARCore being subsequently revealed in August with initial support for the Google Pixel, Pixel XL and the Samsung Galaxy S8. This move deepens that initial bond, and speaking on Twitter Bavor confirmed he was “excited” to be working with Samsung further.
Following a 2017 that has seen interest in developing apps with AR skyrocket thanks to both ARKit and ARCore, it is surely a matter of time before Apple’s next move. When we get news on any further developments with either AR platform we will of course let you know on VRFocus.