Apple Is Getting Serious About AR Technology

In July of last year, a relatively unheard of software company called Niantic partnered with Nintendo and The Pokemon Company to release Pokemon Go and it quickly became a global sensation. With over 100 million downloads in the first week alone, it became the most downloaded app throughout the first week of release in history. Pokemon Go uses a mobile phone’s GPS and camera to superimpose Pokemon characters in real-life locations, allowing the user to find, capture, train, and battle the Pokemon. The game truly brought augmented reality to the mainstream.

The Pokemon Go phenomenon impressed Apple CEO Tim Cook. In an earnings call shortly after the game was released, he called it “incredible” – “In terms of AR and the Pokemon phenomenon, it’s incredible what has happened there.” He continued, “we have been and continue to invest a lot in this… We are high on AR for the long run… we’re probably going to look back at this and say this was when we started to realize that it was real.”

This morning, in a note released to investors from analyst Steve Milunavich of UBS and obtained by Business Insider, he called AR “the next major innovation from Apple”, and noted Apple’s continued research and development in the AR market. “According to some industry sources,” Milunavich writes, “the company may have over 1,000 engineers working on a project in Israel that could be related to AR.” Citing several AR-related acquisitions Apple has made, including Israeli 3D sensing company PrimeSense, German AR company Metaio, and Israeli cyber security and facial recognition company RealFace, UBS believes that Apple could implement AR elements into the next iPhone, as well as a number of other products over the next several years. Seemingly in agreement with Apple Nostradamus Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims that the iPhone 8 will feature a “revolutionary”, 3D-sensing front camera, Milunavich believes that the iPhone 8 may include such AR-related features as “moderate 3D mapping… and possibly an AR development software kit.”

In the note, Milunavich also points out that he believes that Apple is much more interested in Augmented Reality than virtual reality (one of headlining features of Google’s Pixel line of smartphones, released last year). Tim Cook has noted in the past that AR has the ability go connect people as opposed to the isolating experience of VR – “It gives the capability for both of us to sit and be very present, talking to each other but also have other things, visually, for both of us to see.” Perhaps more importantly, however, Milunavich notes that AR can easily be implemented into Apple’s existing devices – devices containing AR technology can be easily sold to Apple’s existing base of customers. Hopefully we’ll begin to see some AR-related features integrated into the iPhone 8, but it’s safe to say that Apple will take their time in ensuring that the AR rollout will be done correctly. “Augmented reality will take some time to get right,” Cook has said in the past, “but I do think that it’s profound.”

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