The new rumors have Apple’s car project incorporating augmented reality somewhere down the line.
Per a report by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple has turned its attention to developing a software-based autonomous driving system “make sense”, given that the system will support augmented reality and provide an “innovative user experience”.
All of Apple’s past successes were related to human-machine interfaces, such as mouse for Mac, click wheel for iPod, and multi-touch for iPhone and iPad.
Kuo offered the following note:
Assuming Apple successfully develops AR, we predict the firm will enjoy the following competitive advantages: (1) redefining existing key products and leading competitors by three to five years. For instance, this could happen for iPhone, iPad and Mac; (2) eliminating obstacles of Apple Watch and Apple TV by offering an innovative user experience; and (3) entering new business fields, such as autonomous driving system.
We expect Apple to generate preliminary results for AR in the next 1-2 years at the earliest and working with iPhone may be the first step.
Kuo also indicated that the augmented reality market will increase significantly in 2018 and will replace virtual reality to become the mainstream market focus as Apple enters the field. As such, Kuo has predicted that the augmented reality and virtual reality markets will combine to grow from $40-50 billion in 2018 to $150 billion in 2020, with the majority increase coming from AR.
Apple has expressed public interest in augmented reality, CEO Tim Cook having spoken about the topic on a number of occasions recently, hinting that the company’s approach to AR should encourage, not replace, human contact.
According to rumors, Apple has a research team working on augmented and virtual reality, exploring the AR/VR field and investigating how the company could embrace augmented or virtual reality in the future. Apple has reportedly built prototype virtual reality headsets, but Cook’s continued comments on augmented reality indicate Apple is more heavily invested in that technology.
As always, stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via MacRumors