Virtual reality is a big talking point these days, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Apple’s sure to get in on the game, too, right?
The International Consumer Electronics Show is an interesting event. It’s the one place where a lot of things get announced, unveiled, teased, and whatever else, and there are a ton of people out there that will tell you most of those things might not ever actually get released into the real world. Or if they do they’ll be months later, and probably already replaced by something better that wasn’t shown off at CES.
Some products get unveiled at one CES, and then they’ll get shown off again at the next year’s large-scale event. Tweaked, improved, but still not immediately available to buy.
At the same time, CES is a place that we get to see where a major focus of a huge tech market is looking right now. It’s a pretty safe bet that, in a given year, you’ll see a ton of one thing, and a lot of other things. This year, for example, virtual reality ruled the roost. It was everywhere, and there were a ton of experiences to take part in as companies tried their very best to convince a sea of people that their implementation of the technology is better than any other company’s.
Samsung already has a stake in VR, and HTC sees giant potential in the market as well. Google has its own fingers creeping into VR as well, even when it just deals with cardboard right now. Facebook, too, sees VR as the next major step in computing and user experience. Microsoft? Yep, same deal, but with “augmented reality” and its HoloLens headset.
So, where’s Apple?
The easiest answer to that is the most obvious: it’s Apple, and they’re not going out of their way to be at the head of anything. At least, not out in the open. I don’t think it’s a secret right now that Apple is, in some capacity, working on something that’s related to virtual reality or augmented reality. There have been patents (not that that’s a real testament to something coming down the pipe), there have been job openings, and there have been plenty of reports.
Like anything else that has something to do with technology, Apple is working on something. It might not be anything the company wants to show off anytime soon, but they’re at least working on it. They’ll get around to announcing it when they feel like it’s ready (even when it might not be), and in the case of virtual reality, I think that’s perfectly fine.
Virtual reality is going to be huge, and that’s because every single company that can have their hands in the VR cookie jar is putting them in there, as deep as they can. They’re all trying to get ahead of anyone else developing VR content, be it hardware or software, so it’s the typical rat race. And, as typical as the rest of it, Apple’s staying out of it until they’re ready. That probably means they see some intrinsic issues with VR as it is, whether it be cost (hahahaha), software implementation, games, or whatever else it may be.
I don’t think Apple wants to get left behind again, though. They didn’t pay any attention to computer gaming back in the day, and the company is still the brunt of that joke many, many years later. Gaming on a Mac is still not something people take seriously, even as gaming on iOS devices is pretty much a staple these days.
And Apple’s emergence in other device/software markets exemplifies this, I think. The fact that they’ve got the Apple Watch, right as wearables were picking up steam. Or Apple Music, which was probably released before it should have been (and yet still well after the game had started), as streaming music continues to dominate the way people listen to their favorite artists. And now they’ve got the giant tablet with the iPad Pro, and let’s not forget rumors that the Cupertino-based company is building a car, too. NFC support with Apple Pay, too!
Apple doesn’t want to get left behind anymore. It’s still Apple, though, and they’re moving along at their own pace, which means they (probably) won’t be first to anything they don’t want to get left behind from. But you can bet that when they finally do enter the race, it’ll be at a full run, rather than stumbling along out of the gate.
