“Apple may leverage augmented reality on the iPhone to help pave the way for a future smart glasses product, UBS said in a note to investors Tuesday,” Todd Haselton reports for CNBC.
“Apple recently launched its ARKit developer tools, which will allow its partners to build new augmented reality applications for millions of iPhones already in the hands of consumers,” Haselton reports. “‘dvanced sensors and camera capabilities will enhance the iPhone; eventually there could be independent hardware offerings, perhaps iGlass,’ UBS analyst Steven Milunovich said. ‘We can imagine a pair of glasses with quintessential Apple design (iGlass), which enable a Hololens-type experience,’ the company said, referring to Microsoft’s bulky alternative.”
However, the amount of compute power and sensors required likely pose a serious design challenge. If Apple could find a way to send massive amounts of data from the eyeglasses to the iPhone where the bulk of the compute would occur, the eyewear could have a more attractive design. The issue then becomes how to transfer massive amounts of complex data between devices quickly. — UBS analyst Steven Milunovich
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, despite the name that works so well on multiple levels, they wouldn’t be called “iGlass” or “iGlasses.” To fit with Apple’s post-i naming conventions, we’d expect “Apple Glasses” (memories of Google’s flop will have faded), “Apple Specs,” or something along those lines.
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