Tim Cook has simply marked 10 years as Apple’s CEO, and whereas he’s grown Apple into essentially the most worthwhile firm on the earth, it’s affordable to argue he hasn’t but launched a signature, business shaking product like Apple co-founder Steve Jobs did with the iPhone, iPad, Mac and extra.

But when you’ve been following Apple for a minute, you’ve most likely heard Cook discuss concerning the game-changing potential of augmented actuality. While he as soon as stated it was laborious to see the enchantment of Google Glass, the AR wearable that proved unpopular with shoppers, he’s held a persistently optimistic opinion on AR since a minimum of 2016. While many of the business was placing all its eggs within the VR basket, Cook repeatedly expressed help for what he views because the far superior AR. This would turn into a working theme: AR good, VR not so good.

It appears possible that AR could turn into the hallmark of Cook’s tenure, so long as Apple executes on a successful concept. While that’s not precisely assured — Apple has but to unveil an AR headset or glasses — Cook’s frequent feedback concerning the tech preserve the subject within the information and reassure buyers and clients that Apple is engaged on it.

AR options are already out there on the iPhone and iPad. And whereas hope is beginning to fade that Apple will launch a blended actuality machine in 2022, the most recent rumors recommend the corporate continues to be forging forward with some sort of AR/VR headset to be launched within the not-distant future.

Here’s a short historical past of all of the occasions Tim Cook stated he was satisfied AR was the long run.

July 2016: Cook says in a quarterly earnings name that “AR can be really great.”

“We have been and continue to invest a lot in this. We are high on AR for the long run, we think there’s great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity. The number one thing is to make sure our products work well with other developers’ kind of products like Pokémon, that’s why you see so many iPhones in the wild chasing pokemons.” (Cook pronounces it “pokey-mans.”)

September 2016: Cook tells Good Morning America in an interview that he believes AR is an even bigger deal than VR.

“There’s virtual reality and there’s augmented reality — both of these are incredibly interesting. But my own view is that augmented reality is the larger of the two, probably by far.”

AR “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. Maybe it’s something we’re talking about, maybe it’s someone else here who’s not here present but who can be made to appear to be present.”

“There’s a lot of really cool things there.”

August 2016: Cook makes a short point out of AR in a Washington Post profile: “I think AR [augmented reality] is extremely interesting and sort of a core technology. So, yes, it’s something we’re doing a lot of things on behind that curtain that we talked about.”

October 2016: In an look at Utah Tech Tour, Cook goes into element about how crucial AR may become and why he views it as superior to VR — whereas stressing that AR presents important know-how challenges earlier than it may be adopted for mass consumerism.

In phrases of it changing into a mass adoption [phenomenon], in order that, say, everybody in right here would have an AR expertise, the truth to do this, it must be one thing that everybody in right here views to be an “acceptable thing.”

And no person in right here, few folks in right here, suppose it’s acceptable to be tethered to a pc strolling in right here and sitting down, few persons are going to view that it’s acceptable to be enclosed in one thing, as a result of we’re all social folks at coronary heart. Even introverts are social folks, we like folks and we wish to work together. It must be that it’s possible that AR, of the 2, is the one the biggest variety of folks will have interaction with.

I do suppose that a good portion of the inhabitants of developed international locations, and finally all international locations, may have AR experiences on daily basis, virtually like consuming three meals a day, it should turn into that a lot part of you, a whole lot of us stay on our smartphones, the iPhone, I hope, is essential for everybody, so AR will turn into actually massive. VR I feel shouldn’t be going to be that massive, in comparison with AR. I’m not saying it’s not essential, it will be significant.

I’m enthusiastic about VR from an training perspective, I feel it may be actually massive for training, I feel it may be very massive for video games. But I can’t think about everybody in right here getting in an enclosed VR expertise when you’re sitting in right here with me. But I may think about everybody in right here in an AR expertise proper now, if the know-how was there, which it’s not right now. How lengthy will it take?

AR goes to take some time, as a result of there are some actually laborious know-how challenges there. But it should occur, it should occur in a giant manner, and we’ll marvel when it does, how we ever lived with out it. Like we marvel how we lived with out our cellphone right now.

October 2016: Cook tells BuzzFeed News that whereas “VR has some interesting applications,” AR is superior to VR as a result of “there’s no substitute for human contact. And so you want the technology to encourage that.”

Augmented actuality will take a while to get proper, however I do suppose that it’s profound. We may … have a extra productive dialog, if each of us have an AR expertise standing right here, proper? And so I feel that issues like these are higher after they’re integrated with out changing into a barrier to our speaking. … You need the know-how to amplify it, to not be a barrier.

February 2017: Cook expands his thoughts on AR’s potential, including a brand new comparability: AR is a giant concept, just like the smartphone.

I’m enthusiastic about augmented actuality as a result of not like digital actuality which closes the world out, AR permits people to be current on the earth however hopefully permits an enchancment on what’s taking place presently. Most folks don’t wish to lock themselves out from the world for a protracted time period and right now you possibly can’t do this since you get sick from it. With AR you possibly can, not be engrossed in one thing, however have or not it’s part of your world, of your dialog. That has resonance.

I regard it as a giant concept just like the smartphone. The smartphone is for everybody, we don’t must suppose the iPhone is a couple of sure demographic, or nation or vertical market: it’s for everybody. I feel AR is that massive, it’s large. I get excited due to the issues that may very well be accomplished that might enhance a whole lot of lives. And be entertaining. I view AR like I view the silicon right here in my iPhone, it’s not a product per se, it’s a core know-how. But there are issues to find earlier than that know-how is nice sufficient for the mainstream. I do suppose there might be a whole lot of issues that basically assist folks out in every day life, real-life issues, that’s why I get so enthusiastic about it.

June 2017: In a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg News, Cook particulars his imaginative and prescient for AR at Apple:

I feel it’s profound. I’m so enthusiastic about it, I simply wish to yell out and scream. The first step in making it a mainstream sort of expertise is to place it within the working system. We’re constructing it into iOS 11, opening it to ­builders—and unleashing the creativity of tens of millions of individuals. Even we will’t predict what’s going to return out.

There’s some issues that you would be able to already get a imaginative and prescient of. We’ve talked to IKEA, and so they have 3D photographs of their furnishings line. You’re speaking about altering the entire expertise of the way you store for, on this case, furnishings and different objects that you would be able to place across the house. You can take that concept and start to suppose that is one thing that stretches from enterprise to shopper. There’s not a whole lot of issues that do this.

You’ll see issues taking place in enterprises the place AR is ­elementary to what they’re doing. You’re going to see some shopper issues which are unbelievably cool. Can we do the whole lot we wish to do now? No. The know-how’s not full but. But that’s the wonder to a sure diploma. This has a runway. And it’s an unbelievable runway. It’s time to place the seat belt on and go. When folks start to see what’s doable, it’s going to get them very excited—like we’re, like we’ve been.

October 2017: At an event at Oxford, Cook responds to a pupil who asks what know-how he would think about “transformative.” Cook says there are widespread makes use of for AR:

“I’m incredibly excited by AR because I can see uses for it everywhere. I can see uses for it in education, in consumers, in entertainment, in sports. I can see it in every business that I know anything about.”

“I also like the fact that it doesn’t isolate. I don’t like our products being used a lot. I like our products amplifying thoughts and I think AR can help amplify the human connection. I’ve never been a fan of VR like that because I think it does the opposite. There are clearly some cool niche things for VR but it’s not profound in my view. AR is profound.”

October 2017: In an interview with Vogue UK, Cook says whereas Apple wasn’t trying to construct a “giant database of clothes,” it could help firms within the AR area who have been doing this work. “If you think about a runway show in the fashion world, that’s a great application of AR because some of these, you want to see the dress all the way around, you do not want to just see the front,” he tells Vogue, noting what number of runway reveals are live-streamed and never simply seen to an in-person viewers.

November 2017: With the introduction of its ARKit platform on iOS 11, Cook says in a quarterly earnings name that Apple has created the world’s largest augmented actuality platform:

There already are over a thousand apps with highly effective AR options in our App Store right now with builders creating superb new experiences in just about each class of app geared toward shoppers, college students and enterprise customers alike.

Put merely, we imagine AR goes to alter the best way we use know-how without end. We’re already seeing issues that may rework the best way you’re employed, play, join and be taught. For instance, there are AR apps that you just work together with digital fashions of the whole lot you possibly can think about from the human physique to the photo voltaic system. And after all you expertise them such as you’re actually there.

Instantly training turns into rather more highly effective when each topic involves life in 3D. And think about buying when you possibly can place an object in your front room earlier than you make a purchase order – or attending stay sporting occasions when you possibly can see the stats on the sphere. AR goes to alter the whole lot.

This shouldn’t be fairly what got here to go (extra on that later).

October 2017: Post-ARKit launch, Cook admits he thinks AR technology for headsets or glasses isn’t but as much as par so far as Apple is worried.

“I can tell you the technology itself doesn’t exist to do that in a quality way. The display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face — there’s huge challenges with that. The field of view, the quality of the display itself, it’s not there yet.”

“We don’t give a rat’s about being first, we want to be the best, and give people a great experience. But now anything you would see on the market any time soon would not be something any of us would be satisfied with. Nor do I think the vast majority of people would be satisfied.”

“Most technology challenges can be solved, but it’s a matter of how long.”

February 2018: During Apple’s Q1 earnings call, Cook describes “great excitement” round augmented actuality amongst clients.

“Augmented reality is going to revolutionize many of the experiences we have with mobile devices, and with ARKit, we’re giving developers the most advanced tools on the market to create apps for the most advanced operating system running on the most advanced hardware. This is something only Apple can do.”

October 2018: Cook tells NowThisNews throughout an interview about Apple’s Watch that AR is poised to turn into indispensable. “I think that one day we will wonder how we ever lived without it,” Cook says of AR. “We can have a much more enhanced conversation with the power of AR.”

“The future is now,” he provides.

January 2020: Cook tells an audience in Dublin, Ireland that augmented actuality “is the next big thing” and that it’ll “pervade our entire lives.” He provides an instance of an organization utilizing AR and described its potential makes use of.

Yesterday, I visited a growth firm known as War Ducks … in Dublin – 15 folks and so they’re staffing up and utilizing AR for video games. You can think about, for video games it’s unbelievable however even for our dialogue right here. You and I could be speaking about an article and utilizing AR we will pull it up, and may each be trying on the similar factor on the similar time.

I feel it’s one thing that doesn’t isolate folks. We can use it to reinforce our dialogue, not substitute it for human connection, which I’ve all the time deeply anxious about in a few of the different applied sciences.

April 2021: During an interview with journalist Kara Swisher Cook agreed along with her that augmented actuality is “a critically important part of Apple’s future.” He imagines AR being utilized in well being, training, retail, and gaming. “I’m already seeing AR take off in some of these areas with use of the phone. And I think the promise is even greater in the future.”

What’s Apple plan for AR?

Clearly, Tim Cook has been bullish on AR for a very long time. But to this point, Apple’s greatest foray into AR stays the 2017 launch of ARKit — which use iPhones’ and iPads’ cameras and sensors to overlay photographs in 3D area when the machine is pointed at a given space — for iOS 11. ARKit is on the market throughout Apple’s gadgets, which meant a whole lot of cool little projects by novice AR lovers. When ARKit launched, The Verge wrote that the tech had the potential to permit Apple to catch rival Google within the AR area.

But regardless of the fascinating early tasks, ARKit hype fizzled after just a few months. It’s not completely clear why, as a result of it was launched on the peak of the Pokémon Go craze when AR lastly had a preferred mass-market software for a faithful fan base. (Pokémon Go itself continues to be wildly worthwhile, raking in a billion {dollars} a yr on common, however we haven’t seen a bigger motion.)

Since ARKit, Apple has made different, smaller steps ahead with AR apps for the iPhone. In May 2019, it launched its Statue of Liberty AR app, with Cook tweeting, “The Statue of Liberty app is just the beginning of how AR will transform the way we connect with our world’s treasures.” In July 2019, it launched augmented actuality artwork classes for iOS.

In addition to Tim Cook’s fixed cheerleading of the know-how, there are different indicators that Apple is transferring towards an AR future. Apple’s hiring of people like Nat Brown, previously of Microsoft; itemizing dozens of AR and VR job postings; acquisitions together with Metaio in 2015 and SensoMotoric in 2017; and patents on issues like “head mounted display” gadgets all display its regular progress.

Reports began trickling out in 2018 that Apple had a timeline to launch each an AR headset and AR glasses. The company had 1,000 engineers engaged on its VR and AR initiative — codenamed “T288” — which have been anticipated to incorporate a mixed VR and AR headset to be launched in 2021 or 2022, in keeping with Bloomberg News, with a pair of sleeker AR glasses predicted to launch in 2023.

The newest reporting from The Information nevertheless, signifies that an Apple AR/VR headset could have to depend on the processor of one other linked machine like an iPhone (just like the early Apple Watch fashions), and that Apple is engaged on a customized chip for the helmet-like headset that may take a minimum of one other yr to reach. Some aren’t as bullish on the extra glasses-like variant both; The Information suggests Apple may nonetheless launch that in 2023, however analyst Ming-Chi Kuo thinks a 2025 launch is extra possible.

It shouldn’t be all that stunning that Apple has taken its time making AR {hardware}; it’s, in spite of everything, the corporate that launched the AirPower wi-fi charging pad, confirmed it off to the world, then canceled the product as a result of it wasn’t as much as firm requirements — and that was simply an charging accent, not a doubtlessly new computing paradigm.

So it’s to be anticipated that Apple would take its time on an AR or VR headset. After hyping the potential for AR all this time, Cook certainly doesn’t need Apple to repeat the failure of Google Glass by launching iGlasses too quickly, and positively not earlier than the know-how meets Apple’s very excessive bar.