Apple is almost always accused of being late to new technologies, but the reality is that in most cases it is a secondary detail that few care about, because the most important thing is not to be the first to teach something, but be the first to get people to use it. The arrival of Augmented Reality (AR) to the iPhone and iPad has not been an exception, and again it looks like Apple will get people to know what it is, and better yet, to use it.
The presentation of ARKit, the tool for developers to create their AR applications for iOS, was a real surprise at the last WWDC in June. And the developers have bet heavily on it, as we have seen in some small advances that some have offered us. Even IKEA has partnered with Apple and could have its moment of glory in the next presentation of the iPhone 8. And the competition? At the moment they only have to look and bite their nails.
Google and Project Tango, does anyone remember?
Apple is not the first to enter this new business that promises to move about 180.000 million dollars by 2025. It was Google three years ago! the one that we can say that first bet by the AR. His Project Tango was launched in early 2014 with the purpose of bringing AR to mobile devices and changing the way we see things.. Unlike Virtual Reality (VR) that immerses you in a completely imaginary world, what AR does is add a layer to the real world with more information than our eyes can see on their own.
Basically if one reads what Project Tango intends it is the same as Apple with its ARKit, but while the former has practically been forgotten by most manufacturers and developers, the latter has been immediately embraced by developers, and not it needs manufacturers because Apple is the only one that makes its devices. At this point there are hardly a couple of devices compatible with Project Tango (this is what Bloomberg assures us) And that is because the requirements imposed by Google include a special 3D camera developed by Intel and called RealSense. This, together with the enormous fragmentation that exists in the Android world, means that something that Google has been working on for more than 3 years has hardly had an impact in practice.
A database of millions of compatible devices
Apple, for its part, has a base of 1000 billion devices around the world. It is true that not all of them will be able to update to iOS 11, but we are going to make a very conservative estimate and let's say that 50% do. It is not something unreasonable if we consider that right now 86% of devices are updated to iOS 10 (official figures as of July 5, 2017). Starting with iPhone 6s and SE, all iPhone models are supported, and all iPad Pro, iPad 2017 are also supported. The end result is that Apple will have millions of devices compatible with Augmented Reality from the launch of iOS 11.
It is true that it is more than likely that the iPhone 8 (or Pro, or whatever it is called) will incorporate a 3D camera that will provide it with exclusive AR functions, but the rest of the devices will be able to make use of it, in fact the developers are already showing some little snacks of what can be done with this new tool that Apple has provided. And as we say, the best is yet to come with the announcement of the new Apple terminal.
Developers are the key
Apple has already shown how Pikachu looks in the new Pokemon Go that makes use of ARKit, and we also know that IKEA is collaborating with Apple to create an application that will allow you to see your furniture placed in your home to see how they look. A new feature for a smartphone or tablet is nothing without the support of developers who create applications that use it., and there Apple has taken the lead. How many million users will use the IKEA app shortly after its launch?
Neither the iPhone was the first smartphone, nor the Apple Watch the first smartwatch, nor the iPad the first tablet. Apple has not been the first to implement AR on its devices, but it will be the first to get millions of people to use it, and in the end that's what counts.