Apple’s Tim Cook seems to be genuinely excited about the future and where augmented and virtual reality will take us. He shared some of his thoughts on the subject over the weekend, at a meetup with the tech community in Utah, giving us some tantalizing hints about Apple’s future projects.
Augmented, or mixed reality, is the one Cook believes will really take off and spread through our society. While he concedes that virtual reality will no doubt have a role and “still be important”, Cook said that mixed reality will eventually be as common as “three meals a day”.
Tim Cook's remarks on AR/VR start at 18:40
The chief executive didn’t share any specific news about Apple products or how the company views this field, but he did give us some hints of the way the tech might show up. First, it will be baked into the operating systems, because that layer of support is crucial for early development and adopters. Then, as the technology progresses, it will become more and more ubiquitous. According to Cook, mixed reality will eventually be at the point where “we will wonder [...] how we ever lived without it, just like we wonder how we lived without our phone today”.
This isn’t the first time that Cook shared his enthusiasm for the field of mixed and virtual reality. Earlier this year he shared similar musings on the subject in an interview, saying the field “has some interesting applications”. At the time credible reports pointed to Apple having already started work on its work virtual/augmented reality projects.
Of course, don’t take Tim Cook’s words to mean that the next iPhone might suddenly come with a mixed-reality feature. The CEO explained that the technology still has a long way to go before it reaches a level where Apple would find it acceptable. But when it does, it will probably change the world.
31 Comments - Add comment