Within hours of Google’s announcement of Google Cardboard, a radically simple VR smartphone adapter, DODOcase started taking offers for a pre-made version of the kit. DODOcase says they’ve sold 15,000 of the kits so far and expect to reach 1 million by the end of 2014.
Google Cardboard was a surprise announcement at Google’s I/O 2014 conference back in June. Cardboard is a VR smartphone adapter that’s literally made out of the versatile brown material of its namesake. Seeing the forthcoming wave of consumer virtual reality, Google wanted to give mobile developers an incredibly easy and inexpensive way to experience and begin building virtual reality content. The company handed out some 10,000 Cardboard kits to developers at I/O 2014 and also published DIY plans for people to build their own. Google does not offer the kit for sale. Unless you got one from I/O or want to build your own, you’re out of luck. Or at least, you would have been…
See Also: Google – ‘Cardboard is a Placeholder,’ 6,000 Kits and 50,000+ App Downloads in First Week
DODOcase, sensing the opportunity, began offering Google Cardboard kits for sale based on Google’s DIY design—not more than a few hours after the announcement.
Speaking at SVVR Meetup #12 earlier this month, DODOcase founder Patrick Buckley says the company has now sold some 15,000 of the kits. Combined with the 10,000 given away at Google I/O—according to a member of the Project Cardboard team—that brings the total to 25,000 kits in the wild.
Buckley says that the company expects to sell 100,000 kits in the next three months and 1 million by January 1st. “Those are pretty bold numbers, but I’ve said them publically now so you can hold me accountable to them,” he said.
I think you’ve got a real opportunity for this to be the most accessible entry point for virtual reality available. Someone can literally put this together for $20… they’re experiencing virtual reality for the first time. It’s not an Oculus Rift, it’s not whatever Samsung’s going to do, it’s not gonna be a hardcore gamer thing, but I think it is the way that the first million people and the mass market get introduced to virtual reality. You can think of this thing as the Model T Ford of this category. The Oculus is like a Lamborghini, but right now people just need to get around in an affordable car.
You can watch Buckley’s presentation at SVVR #12 here: