Tim Cook comments on virtual reality. Apple likely skipping virtual reality and focusing on augmented reality.
Apple might be in the midst of making a giant mistake. The company is betting on augmented reality, leaving out virtual reality. Tim Cook commented on the focus of Apple in the fledging virtual reality solutions. "There’s no substitute for human contact," Cook told BuzzFeed News. "And so you want the technology to encourage that.”
Tim Cook talked about Apple's augmented reality plans earlier this year. "We are high on AR for the long run. I think AR can be huge."
While I agree that Augmented reality could be in the end the bigger market, virtual reality is going to be substantial as well. Augmented reality will pop when we do not need any headsets anymore to see virtual worlds mixed into the reality as magic leap promises.
Fully immersive virtual experience will gravitate towards a quality that can't be easily told apart from reality. Just look at Saya to get an idea of where things are going. Instead of watching a movie, people can have life like experiences that they can't have in real life. They can be somebody else to experience their life and adventures. Believing that there is no substitute for human contact, might be a generational issue. Future generations will be used to interact with artificial intelligences that look as real as Saya.
The augmented reality strategy of Apple make sense for the iPhone. In the mobile virtual reality segment, there is no other viable way. The mobile VR headsets like the Gear VR just exist because real virtual reality headsets are expensive.
Apple is giving up the future home entertainment market by not providing a virtual reality solution.
