Microsoft VR kit is a Google Cardboard competitor

Microsoft now has a competitor to Google Cardboard that has debuted called VR Kit.

Microsoft is already hard at work developing its HoloLens “mixed reality” technology, which, if the demos and CEO Satya Nadella’s descriptions are anything to go by, will blow mobile VR out of the water when it arrives in a few years’ time.

As such, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see Microsoft doling out the design on a free, open-source model at some point in the future.

The photo that Microsoft used in the contest suggests that the company is going for an approach similar to Google’s and requires Lumia owners to insert their phones in their handmade VR Kit. The VR Kit hasn’t been touted by Microsoft just yet, but it was spotted on a website promoting a Microsoft hackathon in Russian Federation.

While Oculus and its watchful parent Facebook have pledged to make the Rift as economically viable as possible, a different tack with the likes of Google has been using people’s smartphones, pressed into a cardboard shell with some lenses.

It is clear that the tech firm is upping its game when it comes to VR, but we are still a long way off until we can get our hands on the HoloLens – the device isn’t expected to launch until 2016.

According to the page, the hackathon will be split into three distinct development categories: games, education, and corporate apps. By holding the “device” to their face, users should be able to experience their own VR world based on apps that are developed at this hackathon. Winners will be chosen in each category.