Fresh off news in January that it’s getting serious about virtual reality (VR), Google, Inc. is said to be preparing to launch a new headset for smartphones, at least according to one report over the weekend.

The Financial Times claims that the new headset will be a successor to Cardboard, and will feature better sensors, lenses and a more solid plastic casing.

The device is said to be similar to Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd.’s Gear VR, in that it will rely on a smartphone for its display and ‘most of its processing power;” the difference here is that Google’s existing Cardboard VR headset is simply (as the name suggests) a cardboard headset that a smartphone is inserted into, whereas the new device will come with additional motion sensors to add to what the phone itself puts out.

Unlike Gear VR, which only works with a small range of Samsung phones, Google’s new VR headset will work with a “much broader range of Android devices than Gear VR,” writes The Financial Times.

Along with the headset, Google is also said to be looking to build virtual reality support into Android itself so that all future Android releases support it natively, in contrast to its current approach with Cardboard relying on an app to deliver its virtual reality experience. Of particular note, the application of native VR support is said to overcome current issues where latency causes some users to feel nauseous, the idea being that VR support baked into Android at its core may overcome lag time issues.

Winning

While it’s fair to point out that Google is rather late in taking virtual reality seriously, which is hyped, rightly or wrongly, as the next big thing, it’s also remiss not to note that Google’s Cardboard VR headset has actually been a moderate success, having shipped 5 million units to date.

While the battle for VR supremacy is still ahead of us in the broader market, with multiple releases due in the year ahead, the lower end (if you like) VR headsets that utilize smartphones for screens may yet be a key market if virtual reality really takes off, particularly given the excessive prices being charged by the likes of Oculus Rift and the otherwise ordinary experience delivered by the HTC Vive.

Apple may have popularized the smartphone market with the iPhone but it was dead cheap Android devices that ultimately made smartphones globally ubiquitous, and it may well be that cheaper headsets that cater to the lower end of the market make virtual reality ubiquitous as well.

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