Within the virtual reality and augmented reality industry, there’s been an immense amount of speculation surrounding what Apple plans to do for their devices in this realm. Tim Cook famously denounced virtual reality, claiming that augmented reality would be far superior, leading a lot of analysts to speculate that Apple would only do an augmented reality headset and not a virtual reality headset. However, I think that everyone so far has missed the point: Apple won’t do any kind of virtual reality or augmented reality headset, the same way they didn’t build a successful PDA. Confused? Let me explain.
First, let’s understand what Apple is: They are one of the only consumer technology companies in the world. What about Google or Microsoft you ask? Well, Google’s primary business is advertisements, not consumer devices. They build their own mobile phones so they can have a say in how advertisements run on them, not to sell consumer’s devices (that’s just a bonus if they make money). The same with Microsoft: Microsoft is an enterprise solutions company, so their hardware is geared towards getting businesses invested, not to sell devices to consumers (though again, if they make money, that’s a bonus). You can see this strategy with how Microsoft approaches Hololens already, or with how Facebook is approaching virtual reality (e.g. the social aspect). At the end of the day, these companies have plans behind the scenes of their hardware. Apple does not. Apple is focused entirely on building great software and hardware for consumers. As it stands today however, virtual reality and augmented reality are not properly primed for consumers, nor will they likely ever be.
Apple’s first step will be to figure out how this technology works for you. What does it mean to have an augmented reality or virtual reality headset? What will people do with them? What are the use cases? Do I need to see my entire room while playing a game? What about if I’m out and about and want to see my notifications? Do I need to use my voice as input, or can I connect a keyboard from somewhere instead? There are many questions about this technology that consumers will have, and Apple’s goal will be to answer them as succinctly as possible. This starts with how they describe the device. Look at Steve Job’s famous introduction of the iPhone. Notice how not once does he mention the word “PDA”…
