Introduction
The new iPhone was an evolution. The revolution is our ability to more deeply understand and shape reality (with AR and beyond). This is an important moment in that shift.
On June 5, 2017, at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced that one of the biggest features of the new iPhone and iPad would be its augmented reality (AR) capabilities. Earlier in the year, Apple announced that AR was one of its big-budget line items. And when the iPhone launched on September 12, the world of AR shifted entirely.
If Pokémon Go was a tipping point in public awareness of the technology, Apple’s adoption and public support for the technology moves AR into an entirely new realm. With the distribution of ARKit to Apple’s 275,000-plus developers, we are at a new moment in imagining what AR can be and do. Not so much because of what Apple itself created. Rather, the shift is because of the door it threw open by sheer virtue of its size.
Although Apple’s much-touted foray into AR did not propel us instantly into a holographic world, it did open the door wide for the field. There is new impetus for other players in hardware and software to make AR a priority. More money, attention, and effort are going in the direction of AR. There is also new public awareness that has pushed forward HoloLens, Google’s Daydream phone and ARCore (and the early and rapidly improving AR experiences created with the tool), Snapchat glasses, and all of the cute Facebook AR Studio masks and tools. ...