Google’s Android is lagging Apple but will
likely progress along a similar path and it is
reacting in order to stay competitive at the
high-end of the smartphone market.
Google has already responded to Apple’s ARKit by launching
ARCore, a developer platform which supports
some Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google Pixel
phones. In 2018, Qualcomm is likely to ship 3D
sensing modules to the Android ecosystem
(including for Samsung), and Huawei and Xiaomi
are also likely to launch their own versions,
initially for facial recognition only.
From 2019, the Android ecosystem is likely to develop 3D sensing
capabilities for AR too, following Apple, though
its slow start means the Android AR experience
could be inferior for over two years.
By 2020,there will almost certainly be broad adoption of
3D sensing hardware across the high-end
smartphone industry to support feature-rich AR.
EU Forecast
euf:b18:134/nws-01