Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, has been singing the praises of augmented reality for quite some time now, basically laying the red carpet for what many believed was an inevitable launch of something related to AR.
And, sure enough, the company unveiled ARKit earlier this year at the Worldwide Developers Conference, and it’s already garnered a boat load of attention from seasoned and brand new developers across the globe. We’ve seen a variety of different implementations of AR ideas, from tape measures and navigational help while walking, and we’ve even seen what A-Ha’s popular Take On Me music video can look like in ARKit.
So it isn’t too surprising to hear that Cook is still riding high on the possibilities of augmented reality, and will continue to go to bat for the technology and its possibilities. Like today, during the earnings call following Apple’s publication of its fiscal third quarter report. Cook, taking questions from the audience that had dialed in, said that he “could not be more excited about AR,” and added that he’s excited about what he has been seeing from developers creating content with ARKit up to this point.
Cook added that he thinks AR could fill different shoes and categories, saying he believes it could easily fit into the consumer, small business, and even the enterprise markets. He would go on to add that the enterprise market sometimes takes a bit longer to “get going sometimes,” so while other areas might benefit from AR faster, even if the enterprise doesn’t catch on right away he still thinks it will — eventually.
In addition, Cook said that he believes augmented reality is “big and profound,” and believes that people will look back at the launch of AR and “marvel at the start of it.” He thinks consumers will be using the technology in a lot of different ways, and believes that ARKit will propel developers all over the globe in a big push to bring apps and new ideas to the technology.
Finally, Cook spoke with CNBC after the earnings call and said that while the smartphone is already an essential part of many, many people’s lives, he believes that AR will make the phone even more essential than it already is:
“The smart phone is becoming even more important to people because it’s going across so much of your life and you can tell by some of the things we did at WWDC that that will only continue,” Cook told CNBC’s Josh Lipton. “And with things like AR… I think it becomes even more essential than it currently is. I know it’s hard to believe, but I think that’s the case.”
So, what do you think? Is AR the next big thing?
