Apple has, for years, been carefully laying the foundation for their widely expected AR smartglasses, analyst Tim Bajarin explains for Forbes.
Right after Apple introduced AR Kit and its new focus on AR at WWDC in June of 2017, I had the opportunity to spend about 20 minutes talking to Apple CEO Tim Cook… He told me that he saw AR as one of Apple’s most significant opportunities and then made a powerful statement about Apple and AR. He said, “I believe it could be one of Apple’s greatest contributions to the tech world,” and he was highly excited about AR’s potential in general.
Five years later, Apple has still not introduced an actual AR set of glasses or goggles, but they have done something fundamental in the meantime.
Instead of releasing any AR glasses or goggles, Apple instead started down the path of creating a lot of software applications that could be delivered on iPhones and iPads. These applications can now be translated for use on any Apple glasses they eventually bring to market.
Apple also created a support and service program for AR apps, giving them a solid platform to release AR glasses or goggles when they are ready for prime time… [O]nce Apple enters this market and introduces millions of its customers to their AR and Mixed Reality version, the market will start to take off.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup. Focused on developers at first, but the revolution will follow!
Apple has the custom silicon. Apple has the installed base. Apple has the ecosystem. Apple has the services. Apple will have the profitable portion of the mixed-reality headset market. And then, a few years later, Apple will take the profitable portion of the smartglasses (AR) market, too.
And some people will slap their foreheads and lament, “I could’ve bought Apple shares under $140!” – MacDailyNews, May 24, 2022
Apple’s smartgoggles will be cool, but it’s the subsequent Apple smartglasses that will change the world. – MacDailyNews, July 11, 2022
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
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