Race to build VR cameras escalates as Google teams with IMAX and Yi Technology on new rigs
Google is working with new camera manufacturers IMAX and Yi Technology to ramp up production — One of the most impressive things Google unveiled at its developers conference last May was an odd, disc-shaped gadget called the Odyssey.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's camera program has been compounding since its 2015 Cardboard redesign and GoPro 16-camera recorder established the playbook: pair Google's stitching software with partners who manufacture the optics. This Bloomberg report extends that model upmarket, adding IMAX — a cinema-grade brand — and Xiaomi-linked Yi Technology alongside GoPro.
The move matters because professional 360-degree capture was the bottleneck for YouTube's VR ambitions: without enough high-end rigs, there was little stereoscopic content worth watching in a headset. The subsequent record shows both the payoff and the limits — Yi shipped the $17K 17-camera Yi Halo built with Google within a year, but by 2018 Google had pulled out of the IMAX rig entirely as it shifted focus to AR, prompting IMAX to cancel the camera outright.
First-order effects
- Yi Technology and IMAX gain direct access to Google's reference design and software stack, letting them sell into the pro-VR production market Google itself seeded with the Odyssey rig.
- GoPro, Google's earlier capture partner from the 2015 Cardboard-era deal, now competes inside Google's own ecosystem against two newer rig makers.
Second-order effects
- Camera manufacturers learn that distribution runs through platform owners: Yi's Halo launch and Lenovo/LG's later VR180 cameras show vendors accepting Google's formats and standards in exchange for YouTube integration.
- Content economics shift toward whoever controls the format — Google's later VR180 standard halved the capture burden, signaling that full 360-degree rigs like these faced a cheaper rival format from the same partner.
Third-order effects
- The arc from Odyssey to the IMAX cancellation shows capture-hardware alliances are only as durable as the platform owner's headset strategy — when Google pivoted to AR, partners were left holding cancelled programs.
- If the pattern holds, big-tech VR camera partnerships function as option contracts: cheap for the platform company to open, costly for hardware partners whose product lines depend on continued platform commitment.
The trend: Platform companies are treating professional VR capture as a partner-funded experiment they can abandon on strategy shifts, leaving hardware makers exposed to the platform owner's next pivot.