Apple unveiled its Q3 2016 earnings just a day back, and while the Cupertino tech giant managed to scrape past expectations, CEO Tim Cook announced the company’s growing interest in the Augmented Reality space. Speaking in the earnings call, Cook said that Apple would “invest a lot” in AR in the long run.
The Apple CEO also faced some criticism for mispronouncing the name of the blockbuster AR games, PokemonGo (He called it “Pokeman”), but quoting the success of the same, he said, “What happened there, I think is a testament of what happens with innovative apps…this certain developer has decided not to go worldwide yet because of the pressure on their servers, because of the demand. But, I am sure that they will over time. It also shows that AR can be really great and we have been and continue to invest a lot in this. We are high on AR for the long run, we think there’s great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity.”
This statement by the Apple CEO makes it very clear that one can expect a major AR push from the company. Apple is known to set trends when it comes to technology adoption and its foray into AR is definitely a thumbs up for the future of the technology. One should also keep in mind that Apple has already invested in a bunch of AR companies like, Metaio, Faceshift, and Flyby Media. While Metaio was an AR startup known for its augmented travel apps, Facelift was the maker of the motion capture tech used in the most recent Star Wars film. Flyby Media was also the maker of an AR mobile app that was used to scan and share objects, and was earlier a part of Google’s Project Tango. So clearly, Apple is following its usual business model of consolidating smaller companies to build their own tech platform. Some have even called this practice a means of killing competition in the market, but that’s Apple for you.
An AR app made by Apple acquired firm, Metaio.
When it comes to Augmented Reality, analysts predict that the technology is touted to be a much bigger deal that Virtual Reality in the future. On being asked if AR is the next computing shift, Cook said, “I noticed that people want to call it a new computing platform and we’ll see. I think there is a tendency in this industry to call everything new the next computer platform, however, that said, I think AR can be huge. So, we’ll see if it's the next platform. But, regardless, it will be huge.”
What do you think Apple will do with AR? Can we expect a dedicated AR iPhone from the company? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.