“I believe there are at least two significant technologies that could drive new iPhone growth and its ecosystem that could, over time, significantly bring back healthy iPhone sales and help [Apple] expand their overall audience,” Tim Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions. “Each one could spur growth but, together, they could really take the iPhone up a couple of notches.”
“In China, I was shown a prototype of a smartphone with dual cameras and, by using the dual cameras, it took on a lot of DSLR features, including amazing digital zoom and special effects as well as more user controls,” Bajarin writes. “If this is the case and Apple puts dual cameras in new iPhones and makes an iPhone more like a DSLR, interest in that new iPhone could be huge and drive significant new sales in the next cycle.”
“At the moment, Apple has been silent on their VR plans but we know they have made recent hires focused on VR. Given Tim Cook’s recent comments that VR is something Apple sees as important in the future, I have no doubt Apple will eventually deliver some type of VR solution within the iOS and Mac ecosystem,” Bajarin writes. “However, Apple’s M.O. is not to be first but instead, monitor a new technology or market and, when ready, deliver a comprehensive, well thought out version of their own. They could leap frog competitors and make them the leader in a field even if they are late to the game. They did this with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad and I suspect the same thing could happen with VR.”
Much more in the full article – highly recommended, as usual – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Dual cameras? Bring ’em on!
What do you think about VR? The Next Big Thing™, a gimmicky fad, or somewhere in-between?
SEE ALSO:
Chinese spy shots show dual camera ‘iPhone 7’ with no physical home button – March 16, 2016
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple iPhone 7 Plus to offer innovative dual-camera configuration – January 28, 2016
Apple patent application reveals new dual camera zoom lens system – January 7, 2016
Why Apple should hold off on entering Virtual Reality – February 1, 2016
Apple seriously ramps up their secret Virtual Reality project – January 30, 2016
Apple acquires Flyby Media; assembles large team of virtual and augmented reality experts – January 29, 2016
Apple hires leading virtual reality researcher – January 22, 2016
Apple TV can now play 360-degree video content – December 23, 2015
Apple is building a virtual reality supply chain with disruptive potential, new research shows – November 19, 2015
Analyst: Apple team exploring virtual reality/augmented reality – August 31, 2015
Apple exploring a new reality with purchase of Metaio – June 3, 2015
Apple patents perforated augmented reality display that you can see and hear through – May 29, 2015
Apple acquires augmented reality company Metaio – May 28, 2015
New Apple haptics patent application reveals diamond-layered trackpad that simulates wood, other textures – April 23, 2015
Apple granted U.S. patent for hybrid VR head-mounted display – February 18, 2015
Apple is working on VR user interfaces and gaming; looking for Oculus and Leap experts – February 10, 2015
Apple granted patent for display-based speakers for iOS devices – January 13, 2015
Apple granted a patent for devices with a transparent display – November 18, 2014
Apple’s new iPhones, iPads could feature haptic displays – June 30, 2014
Apple patent application reveals personal display headset invention – May 8, 2014
Apple patent application reveals wildly intelligent multi-tiered haptics system – May 3, 2012
Apple continues to tweak Apple TV video headset accessory – April 10, 2014
Apple patent application reveals sapphire flexible transparent display devices created with Liquidmetal – December 19, 2013
Apple granted knockout patent for head-mounted personal display – December 10, 2013
iGlasses: Apple granted patent for head-mounted augmented reality displays – July 5, 2012
Apple files patent application for haptic feedback touch-based user interface – March 22, 2012
VR? – Not if you need goggles or the like. Looks dorky and messes up my hair.
It would be great if Apple designed the iPhone exterior to be optimal for picture taking.
I found it easier to hold the flat edges of the 4-5S when picture taking than the rounded edges of 6-6S.
That’s why I have a iPhone 6 case that looks like a 5 (square edges and thicker) == 5S with a big screen!
Enough with the thin. Give me thicker and a bigger battery.
What ever happened to haptic feedback where you can run your finger across the screen on a picture of sandpaper and be able to feel it? I would think that would be a game changer as well.
I think that particular technology required a larger power source and emitter to send the electric signals to your fingertips from the screen to simulate those tactile sensations. Current haptics used in handheld devices are using vibration components.
Augmented reality will be paradigm shifting in the same way as the iPhone was. The only real question here is the delivery mechanism. In the short-term something like glasses will be the way to do it. Ultimately something along the lines of contact lenses will be where we end up. And when I say AR that doesn’t preclude VR kinds of experiences since AR can overlay your view completely (although not perfectly with glasses but certainly with contact lenses) or partially. And this is where something like the iPhone is dethroned. Why would you need a piece of glass at 4.7 inches (or whatever the size de jour would be) when you can overlay the exact size you want when you want it in your field of view? Or better yet why even constrain yourself to the iOS UI paradigm when literally the whole world is at your disposal?
What you are talking about is called Merged Reality (MR). The observer’s view is a combination of reality and VR.
Yes, glasses will be part of it, and *eventually* for those that are willing to wear them (some people just *can’t* get used to them), contacts. Contacts will take much, much longer. Probably 5-10 years longer, maybe more. You can hide so much more electronics and power systems in glasses than you can in contacts, and RF transmissions of both information and power to something on your eyes will likely be a cataract danger until they can get the power extremely low.
Removal of the 3.5mm analog jack ends my annual upgrade ritual.😡
Comparisons between Apple’s camera and a real DSLR are silly.
The iPhone camera is quite good, though hard to use compared to my Canons and Nikons, but the image quality is good.
If their next big thing is about cameras, that will not be enough to make me upgrade.
Wow, I can’t believe this article; No FUD, no Doomness, no poison. Only positive, progressive thoughts.
It is like a breath of fresh air…
As far as VR into the next big thing. VR has been trying hard for now more than 4 decades… Is it time? Did Apple found something non-intrusive? As far as VR goes, I don’t want to end up with goggles taped to my head or all my senses trapped into those monitoring succion cups… VR will be a niche market for some application but the days where everybody will look at each other through goggles is out of my mind. What a terrible vision…
Bar is not interesting. A better camera would be good. I’d really like to see a standardized way to quickly attach an external lens.
Most of the other things I’d like to see are in software. Siri could be improved. Siri could have custom vocabularies or at least an extensible vocabulary.
Not interested in VR myself because I have a feeling it will give me that same nauseous feeling I get whenever I try to watch 3D or ride simulator rides.
I also think any VR company would have the difficult task of convincing people to wear a headset. 3D failed because people don’t want to wear 3D glasses to watch tv. Google Glass failed because people didn’t want to wear their glasses.
And yet the majority of people in first world countries wear sun glasses quite a lot of the time when outdoors (and many wear then indoors too when they are not necessary).
Google Glass failed for many more reasons than people just didn’t want to wear glasses.
VR Verdict: Gimmcky, like force touch.
I actually think Augmented Reality has more impact and uses that VR. Give me a heads up view on my phone of a device/product or a map and enrich it with additional data.
People readily adjust to the HUD in simulators and videogames, in the same way they adjust to instrument panels in vehicles. I sense them converging in a Car, with data feeds displayed in the windscreen. No goggles, glasses, or headsets.
Yes.
This may then allow CarPlay to fulfill its originally stated goal of “Hands Free AND Eyes Free” meaning you don’t have to take your hands off the steering wheel/shifter AND you don’t have to take your eyes off the road. CarPlay just is NOT there yet, not even close. Maybe someday.
While not as exciting as some new technologies I believe that there is a huge potential for Apple in health care.
There are already comments made about Apple moving to providing blood sugar, blood oxygen and blood pressure readings with the Apple Watch. Add in Health Kit and Research Kit and a bit of imagination and you can see an explosive growth for Apple in a growing market.
Looking at Apple’s future will often mean looking at additional potential uses for existing products. Research Kit is, in itself, explosive in potential.
VR will be a small drop in a smaller bucket.
2016 is going to be a catastrophic mess of VR and AR. I expect 2017 will be the GEE WHIZ! year when the wheat is separated from the chaff, the prices approach sanity and the vast amount of VR/AR crap is consigned to the garbage can of history.
It’s going to be a virtually bumpy ride.
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