“Apple used this year’s WWDC to demonstrate a number of areas in which it is playing offense. This isn’t a company content with letting others control the user experience found with its devices. However, one of the major takeaways from the WWDC keynote was found with something not announced on stage. Apple finds itself announcing new technologies that make more sense on form factors that don’t yet exist,” Neil Cybart writes for Above Avalon. “Management is increasingly focused on what comes next, and the answer is smart glasses.”
“The features and software unveiled at WWDC 2018 could be split into two categories. The first group included items targeting the way we use and consume content on Apple devices. This included everything from empowering users with information regarding how devices are used to improving the way we consume content,” Cybart writes. “The other group of announcements was related to new technologies designed to make the cameras and screens in our life smarter.”
“There is a drawback found with most of the cameras and screens that stand to benefit from these new technologies: We still have to hold them. While AR makes for a cool on-stage demo, having to hold an iPhone or iPad up as an AR viewfinder for long periods of time isn’t ideal,” Cybart writes. “When combining Apple Watch and AirPods sales, Apple’s wearables segment will soon outsell iPad in terms of unit sales.
The next wearables battle will be for our eyes. This battle will revolve around a product that benefits from technologies currently found with ARKit, Siri, and Apple’s ML efforts. Apple is setting the stage for smart glasses. ”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Clearly.
Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we’ll look back at holding up slabs of metal and glass to access AR as unbelievably quaint. — MacDailyNews, July 28, 2017
The impact of augmented reality cannot be overstated. It will be a paradigm shift larger than the iPhone and the half-assed clones it begat. — MacDailyNews, August 4, 2017
Augmented Reality is going to change everything. — MacDailyNews, July 21, 2017
SEE ALSO:
Gene Munster: Apple will release Apple Glasses late in 2021 – May 17, 2018
Apple patent application reveals work on eye-tracking technology for VR and AR headsets – April 27, 2018
Apple prepping Micro-LED displays for Apple Watch and Smartglasses for 2019, sources say – April 3, 2018
Apple CEO Cook on the future of fashion, shopping, and AR smartglasses – October 11, 2017
Apple’s AR smartglasses – understanding the issues – August 29, 2017
Bernstein: Apple’s ‘smartglasses’ opportunity ‘could be enormous’ – August 25, 2017
Apple working on several prototypes of AR glasses – August 4, 2017
Apple’s next big move: Augmented reality – August 3, 2017
Apple’s rumored new glasses will be an even bigger deal than the iPhone – July 28, 2017
Apple smart glasses are inevitable – July 28, 2017
Focus on the parts of the company that make a profit, being a Hollywood beginner isn’t going to pay the bills.
I bet you don’t see the value in going to the moon either…
Both Pixar and Ardman animations started out not so long ago by being total beginners in producing feature films and somehow managed to cover their bills and still have quite a bit of change left over. Of all the things Apple might worry about, how to pay their bills probably doesn’t make them lose much sleep.
Apple is always being told that they are beginners entering a mature businesses against formidable established players and that there is no way that they will be able to make inroads in that industry. It’s already happened on a spectacular scale with the the music business, the phone business, dedicated retail shops and chip design.
It keeps people using Apple products though. It all helps the ecosystem. OS releases doesn’t pay the bills but they sell hardware.
of Apple’s fairly recent pow-wow (mtg was curious in itself and much belated) with “professionals” to determine what they’d want in a Mac Pro.
A company is organic and evolves (or dies), but isn’t it strange that a company like Apple is “seen wondering?” I imagine these things to be ongoing, but behind the scenes and “pop” into public view when ready/apparent.
It’ll be a tall order overcoming the glass backlash.
Sure, just put iOS on a pair of glasses and call it a day. Oh yeah, snap on VoiceOver to make the poor blind people happy too. Can’t forget about that accessibility whatever, I guess.
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As if … Apple hasn’t got products lined up for the next three years.
Hopefully including some desktop Macs. Upgradeable and with lots of usable connectors an’ stuff like that.
AR on iOS might not be ideal, but it allows developers to learn how to use it, to develop apps that will then make glasses truly worth buying. I don’t think glasses are at a point where large numbers of people are going to do away with their phones, but if AR becomes genuinely useful they might buy them in addition to.
Glasses? Maybe, but I’d be surprised.
I am guessing they are spending a lot of time on gesture recognition – sort of like Minority Report. Face ID gives them a start; the next logical step would be to recognize hand or face gestures as a means of issuing commands to a device.
“This battle will revolve around a product that benefits from technologies currently found with ARKit, Siri, and Apple’s ML efforts”
Siri ??
Apple better get their contextual understanding and speech recognition and search and AI algorithms right first..