The story had to be written because Google showed off some tools to make augmented reality apps for mobile devices using the Android operating system. The release showed how far Apple was away from releasing anything remotely AR.
Google’s take on the technology will first be available on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google’s own Pixel phone. The company said in a blog post that it hoped to make the system, called ARCore, available to at least 100 million users, but did not set a date for a broad release.
Reuters pitched that the move was setting up its latest showdown with Apple iPhone over next-generation smartphone features. In this case it had a few problems as Apple has not actually released or announced an AR product yet.
In June, Apple announced its ARKit that it plans to release this autumn on the iPhone. Reuters produced a fact that the Pokémon Go game made $3 billion for Apple over two years as gamers buy “PokéCoins” from its app store. On that basis, Google which actually has products, might as well surrender now.
AR’s future is never going to be a phone. It will be based in glasses, car windshields and other surfaces can overlay digital information on the real world. On this front Google and Microsoft are way ahead, but that did not stop Reuters insisting it was all about phones.
Reuters claims that Apple will beat Google because it has total control of its phones whereas Android is fragmented.
“Google will have to figure out how account for the wide variety of Android phone cameras or require phone makers to use specific parts. Apple, however can make its system work well because it knows exactly which hardware and software are on the iPhone and calibrates them tightly”, Reuters enthused.
Clearly the Reuters writer has not heard of a spec requirement. All Google has to say is that Android components must meet the following for AI and if its diverse hardware makers don’t follow it, they can’t run the latest Android.
Reuters did not address the main issue. Google for all its faults in Android fragmentation, is light years ahead of Apple on AI technology and has been experimenting with it for decades. True, the same thing could be said to apply to Microsoft and Tablets and Apple could market its way out of trouble, but it still has to come up with better products.
