“Augmented reality (AR) has played prominently in nearly all of Apple’s events since iOS 11 was introduced, Tim Cook has said he believes it will be as revolutionary as the smartphone itself, and AR was Apple’s biggest focus in sessions with developers at WWDC this year,” Samuel Axon reports for Ars Technica.
“But why? Most users don’t think the killer app for AR has arrived yet—unless you count Pokémon Go,” Axon reports. “The use cases so far are cool, but they’re not necessary and they’re arguably a lot less cool on an iPhone or iPad screen than they would be if you had glasses or contacts that did the same things.”
“Apple has achieved its biggest past successes by entering wild west markets where mature products were not yet present. Smartphones, tablets, and computers are mature markets. Apple needs a major new product category in which to get ahead of the ball. Tim Cook and other Apple executives seem to have picked AR as one of the best bets for that,” Axon reports. “We’ve seen reports that Apple is working on AR glasses internally. If the experiments pan out, it would be quite a few years off—Cook himself said we’ve a long way to go in a recent interview—but the technology will mature eventually. If Apple launches the first mainstream-viable version of that product, and if AR is as revolutionary as it hopes, it could be another watershed moment like the first iPhone. That’s one reason why Apple has started now—the more work on its AR platform happens before that time, the better the hand the company will hold.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s a smart bet.
Augmented Reality is going to change everything. — MacDailyNews, July 21, 2017
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
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
Sorry Apple,
Not feeling it with AR. Sounds like just another hobby that will be abandoned soon, unless you like to waste your precious life time playing that idiotic stupid pokemon game. Some of us have real things to do instead.
I don’t know, trondude. I think that Apple AR has a shot at becoming a big deal. AR is an input/output technology. If you look at Apple’s foundational achievements, they are all I/O related: GUI/mouse, WYSIWYG/desktop publishing, iPod/iTunes/music and media, and iPhone/iPad/multitouch, Siri/voice, and the Apple Watch and AirPods/wearables.
When you consider the evolution of computers, they center on processing speed, storage, displays and I/O, and operating systems/software. Speed is always nice, but it seldom results in rapid evolution of the user experience. The same goes with storage technologies. There are a few examples of operating systems and software that drove computer evolution, such as MacOS, LOTUS 1-2-3, Adobe Photoshop, etc., and more will be added to that list in the future. But I believe that I/O will be the root of computer evolution in the coming decades. Just as laptops freed us from the desktop paradigm and cell phones freed us from the phone cord, AR will provide increased mobility and independence from large displays.
Down the road, computer I/O will branch out into retinal input, implanted/embedded devices, and direct brain/device interfaces. Processors and storage and other computer technologies will continue to advance and will play critical roles in enabling next generation devices, but evolutions in I/O will dominate the impact on the human experience
Just like 3D TV was supposed to be big. AR is nothing more than a feature of a smartphone. The problem with AR on a smartphone medium is that it’s awkward. You have to hold up your phone and the size of the screen coupled with that makes it quite limited.
And when it comes to wearable glasses. Sure, that is better in some ways. But people have demonstrated they don’t want to wear glasses on their face (e.g., Google Glass: 3D glasses for TV).
The real revolution for AR is whe. we don’t need any device and there are digital things overlayed in our environment. Whether it’s an implant or something else…
Maybe I’ve got no imagination, but what could AR do to help us do the typical things we do now on computers? Email, surfing the net, word processing, etc.. I’m currently composing some orchestral stuff using 2 monitors to see the score, arrangement, etc., 100s of GB of samples, and so on.
Will AR help that? (Serious question.)
Ahhh, I’m just fine with REALITY, not kid games and Hollywood special effects. That said, will keep an open mind …
addicted gamers to reach a personal best at work, while they arrange a sales deal on the phone…or text their online concubine. We all need our reality to be augmented, whether physical or digital. When will my spiritual reality be augmented by software? Will God care when that occurs?
It definitely won’t help blind people.
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having your view of things on this board to check mine.
I bet the first killer app version of AR will be seen through car windshields.
Buh bye battery.
Yup! …