the movement that shows that it is serious about mixed reality

At this point, it is already evident that the Pixels have completely changed the Android mobile sector, in a way that Google could not achieve with the Nexus (although it is not that it wanted to). Instead of simply being the reference mobile phones, the Pixels are full-fledged competitors in the market, and the new Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro This is how they demonstrate it. That is why the company’s latest move is so important for its future.

In 2017, Google bought a good part of HTC’s smartphone divisionadding approximately 2,000 employees specialized in mobile development. The results of this multimillion-dollar investment have already been noticeable, with the Pixel phones, which since the sixth generation have used a processor designed by Google itself and which are already one of the most recommended phones in the Android sector. It can already be said that the investment of 1.1 billion dollars in purchasing HTC equipment has been worth it.

Today, Google may have repeated history. Google announced today that it has acquired part of the HTC Vive virtual and mixed reality engineering team; The movement, which has cost him 250 million dollars, will be very familiar to readers of EL ESPAÑOL – El Androide Libre who have been with us for a while. In fact, the goal seems to be the same: to make it easier for Google to gain a foothold in the relatively new mixed reality sector.

Google itself is very clear with the objective of this acquisition: accelerate the development of the Android XR platformalthough for the moment, it has avoided confirming whether it will create its own mixed reality glasses.

Let us remember that Android XR will be released thanks to a collaboration with Samsung, which will be the creator of the glasses that for now have the code name Moohan, a collaboration in which Qualcomm also participates with its new chip for wearable devices.

However, Google has already hinted that this acquisition may have important consequences for its future products. Although the main motivation for this move has been to get HTC software engineers to work on Android XR, Google has also confirmed that it has received a license to use HTC’s intellectual property, and has even opened up to the possibility of “explore future collaboration opportunities” between HTC and Google. Therefore, the possibility of Google mixed reality glasses created in collaboration with HTC is on the table.

An important detail is that HTC has not sold its Vive division to Google, and will continue with the development of virtual reality and augmented vision glasses for video games and companies, such as the HTC Vive Focus Vision launched last year. Therefore, this news does not mean the end of HTC in the sector, as the sale of its smartphone division unfortunately did; Although HTC has continued to launch mobile phones from time to time, it has done so in a very limited way and only in some markets.