Microsoft will soon introduce its own inexpensive smartphone VR holder called VR Kit, which resembles Google Cardboard in form and function.(Photo: Microsoft)
SAN FRANCISCO - Google may have gotten the jump on inexpensive virtual reality kits by introducing Cardboard to Android-owning smartphone owners, but Microsoft isn't content to stay out of the race.
The Redmond, Wash-based company has come up with its version of the DIY box that turns a phone into a VR viewer. Dubbed Microsoft VR Kit, the holder will be given away to Russian hackers who successfully come up with VR applications for Windows phones at an Oct. 17 hackathon in Moscow. Much like Cardboard, VR Kit is a handy way for users to position a smartphone horizontally and the proper distance from their eyes when viewing content created especially for VR viewing.
There's also a chance that VR Kit could be a part of Microsoft's Oct. 6 hardware roll-out in New York, where the company is expected to showcase a new Lumia smartphone. On Tuesday, Google will hold an event at its Mountain View headquarters to unveil its own new Nexus phones.
This is an interesting time for Microsoft and its continuing quest to have a piece of the hardware pie, considering it wrote off its failed purchase of handset-maker Nokia earlier this year. And while its line of Surface tablets do sell well, Microsoft officials made a rare appearance at an Apple event earlier this month in order to tout how well its Office suite of products run on Apple's new iPad Pro, a seeming competitor to Surface. VR Kit would suggest that Microsoft hasn't given up the ghost on its Windows phone program.
Virtual reality is quickly moving from the realm of engineering geeks and gamers to mainstream, thanks in part to efforts by Google to push Cardboard as an inexpensive way to experience VR. This week, Google begins visiting thousands of schools in the U.S. and abroad with its Google Expeditions kit, which allows teachers to take students on VR field trips to places ranging from the Great Wall of China to the Great Barrier Reef.
The most impressive VR experiences will be delivered by products that are expected to hit consumers next year, notably Facebook-owned Oculus Rift and Microsoft's own HoloLens, which CEO Satya Nadella has been wearing around his home to test. But at more than $1,000 for most of this high-tech VR gear, low-cost options such as Cardboard, Mattel's View-Master and now Microsoft's VR Kit that leverage consumers' existing smartphones will be the way most humans experience a version of VR for some time to come.
Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter: @marcodellacava
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Source: Microsoft VR kit takes aim at Google Cardboard
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