“Augmented reality is one area in which Apple intends to take an unprecedented lead,” J. M. Manness writes for Seeking Alpha. “This move by Apple will give it a tremendous lead over the competing systems: Android, promoted by Alphabet, and Windows mobile by Microsoft. It is unlikely that either will come up with a truly competitive system any time soon.”
“The most difficult problem for an AR system is that it must first interpret its environment from the visual images given it by the system camera. This is one area in which AR and AI overlap – the visual recognition of objects in a scene. It is an extremely difficult problem that requires significant compute resources,” Manness writes. “ARKit is Apple’s API for building AR applications for iOS devices… Essentially, an API does all the hard work for the programmer. This is true here probably more so than in any other API.”
“I believe Apple has been preparing for AR for a long time. Apple surprised the tech world with the A7 chip for the iPhone 5s – the first 64-bit processor for mobile phones. It caught the cellular world flat-footed and all the rest scurried to catch up. But Apple not only had the then current state of computing in mind, they were building for the future,” Manness writes. “When the iOS 11 update is available in the fall, it will instantly become by far the largest AR platform… Apple has just created yet one more very significant moat around the iOS platform. In September, Apple devices will automatically become the default devices for AR, while Android rushes to catch up. Yet Apple will remain far ahead for, at very least, three years. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Google. Frantically skating toward wherever Apple puts the puck next – and never getting there before Apple advances it again.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s AR is much closer to reality than Google’s – June 26, 2017
IKEA’s forthcoming Augmented Reality furniture app powered by Apple’s ARKit – June 19, 2017
Apple’s single most important WWDC 2017 announcement: ARKit – June 11, 2017
Apple CEO Cook discusses philosophy behind HomePod, ARKit’s potential market impact – June 6, 2017
Overnight, Apple will own the world’s largest augmented reality platform – June 7, 2017
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “nony” for the heads up.]