Apple CEO Tim Cook Shares His Excitement About Augmented Reality, Calls AR A Big Idea 'Like Smartphones'!

Apple is an extremely secretive company. They talk whenever they want to, on their own terms, and it¡¯s very hard to discern what¡¯s cooking inside the Cupertino giant¡¯s campus. So when Apple CEO Tim Cook gets excited about something, it¡¯s big news for obvious reasons.

This time around, Tim Cook was speaking to The Independent when he expressed his views on AR or augmented reality. Not only is augmented reality very exciting, according to Tim Cook, he believes ¡°it¡¯s a big idea like the smartphone.¡±

Just like you don¡¯t have to think about the smartphone (or the iPhone, in Tim Cook¡¯s case) pertaining to a particular demographics, because smartphones truly are for everyone to use, similar is the case with augmented reality, according to Tim Cook.

¡°I view AR like I view the silicon here in my iPhone, it¡¯s not a product per se, it¡¯s a core technology.¡±

Yeah, augmented reality is that full of opportunities in Tim Cook¡¯s books, it¡¯s that big. Why Tim Cook prefers Augmented Reality over Virtual Reality is because augment reality doesn¡¯t close the outside world out -- which most people don¡¯t like, claims Time Cook. There are no VR goggles that induce headaches or nausea in AR, allowing people to experience the real world with added improvements, thereby augmenting their experience in a unique way.

¡°With AR you can, not be engrossed in something, but have it be a part of your world, of your conversation. That has resonance,¡± according to Tim Cook.

Tim Cook¡¯s views are interesting because it presents a different worldview from what folks at Facebook are concentrating on, which is predominantly Virtual Reality. Going by Tim Cook¡¯s comments, it¡¯s safe to assume that Apple¡¯s steering away from conventional VR applications in tech as they exist currently, and is focusing more on creating deeply enriching AR implementations across different products and platforms.

While Tim Cook didn¡¯t comment on Apple¡¯s product roadmap and strategy at all, it¡¯s clear now that Apple¡¯s AR endeavours will be less like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Galaxy Gear VR and more like Google¡¯s Project Tango -- which marries a conventional smartphone with infrared, depth-sensing cameras to give users unique AR experiences through the comfort of their Android smartphone¡¯s screens.

Will we see an Apple AR announcement this year? That¡¯s hard to say, but Apple has been hiring AR / VR engineers for a while now. This is also the 10th anniversary year of the original iPhone launch, so it¡¯s not completely bonkers to expect Apple to come out swinging and launch its first AR-enabled iPhone. That would definitely make the 10th anniversary iPhone launch all the more memorable!