Apple, Inc. finally showed its hand to the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) industries at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), San Jose, earlier this month, revealing their work to bring both technologies to iOS and MacOS formats. In terms of AR, this begins with ARKit, the company’s own solution for AR development which is already available to developers.
In an interview with The Australian, Apple vice-president of product marketing Greg “Joz” Joswiak said the enthusiasm of Apple’s development community building AR applications had been “unbelievable”.
“They’ve built everything from virtual tape measures [to] ballerinas made out of wood dancing on floors. It’s absolutely incredible what people are doing in so little time,” stated Joswiak. “Who knows the kind of things [are] coming down the road, but whatever those things are, we’re going to start at zero.”
Joswiak suggested that it was never Apple’s plan to build AR glasses or a head-mounted display (HMD) of any kind, but instead to leverage the existing iPhone and iPad audiences for AR.
“I think there is a gigantic runway that we have here with the iPhone and the iPad. The fact we have a billion of these devices out there is quite an opportunity for developers.”
Since the announcement of ARKit, Apple has revealed their work with IKEA to create an AR shopping experience, plus highlighted work by Peter Jackson’s Wingnut and an improved Pokemon Go during WWDC itself. VRFocus will continue to keep you updated with all the latest details on Apple’s work in AR and VR.