Google has recently confirmed with VentureBeat the appointment of Clay Bavor as the big boss for its virtual reality team.
In an email sent to VentureBeat, Google spokesman Joshua Cruz said, "We can confirm Clay's new role on the VR team, but we are not providing any additional comment at this time." This comes after Re/code reported about the move early this week.
Bavor is the VP for product management and one of the executives of the Google Cardboard.
His appointment as the boss of Google's VR is part of the company's strategies and steps in developing its own VR tech, "a potentially lucrative field that, by all appearances, is soon to be dominated by Facebook's Oculus, HTC's Vive, and Sony's Playstation VR."
The Wall Street Journal sees the move as part of Google's attempt "to keep up with some of its rivals in the rapidly expanding world of virtual reality." Furthermore, Reuters noted that "Google has been flirting with virtual reality, but never quite fully dived into it until now."
Although it is estimated that the push into VR is years from becoming a reality. Meanwhile, Microsoft is also doing a rough job on augmented reality tech with HoloLens while Virtual reality startup Magic Leap is being mum about their own progress.
Google Cardboard, on the other hand, has released a virtual White House tour in the past few months and has already launched a Cardboard Camera app for making 3-D panoramas using an Android phone.
Even with its recent partnership with New York Times last October, giving out more than one million free Cardboard viewers, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said he just isn't impressed with the Cardboard. He refers to Cardboard as a "muddy water" while he, of course, call his Oculus a "fancy wine."
Will Clay Bavor take Google's Virtual Reality Business to new heights? Let us wait and see.
