Apple has been one of the most influential tech companies for a really long time now. They have designed and built some of the most popular devices that there have ever been.
The Mac computers, the iPhone, iPad, iPods, Apple Watch have all been remarkably successful and have all influenced other players in the industry in a considerable manner as well. In a way, they have been the trendsetters and whatever new device they launch in a new category, becomes the next big thing.
The last new product, the Apple Watch, was launched in 2015 and since then, no new major product has been released. The AirPods have been more of an accessory so they don't count. But Apple may be hard at work on something that could one day, become the next evolution of computing itself.
I am guessing you must have heard of Augmented Reality already. It is basically superimposing virtual objects onto the real world. Right now we are accessing this augmented reality with our smartphones, but soon that could all change.
Apple AR Glasses
If you've seen people wearing something called a VR headset, you must be familiar with the concept. VR headsets need to cover your eyes completely to immerse you into virtual reality. AR glasses, on the other hand, don't need to do that as the virtual objects are supposed to be seen in the real world.
This allows companies to design AR glasses that look as close to common glasses as possible. You must have seen something of the sort in science fiction movies where details about a person, an object or a place appears right in the field of view of the wearer.
Apple is rumoured to be working on such an AR glass as well which could launch as soon as next year. But these won't be the all-in-one AR glasses that many are hoping. The technology is still not there yet.
What Apple plans to do, according to rumours, is make these AR glasses serve as the input and output device while the processing happens on your iPhone. So, it would take data from the onboard cameras, then the processing will be done on your iPhone, and the results will be displayed on the glasses. It would be more like a display.
This is kind of similar to the first Apple Watch. It didn't store apps natively, and a lot of the processing was done on the iPhone. As chip technology improved, Apple Watch began handling most of the processing on-device.
This is what we can expect from the AR glasses as well but it will still take years for the technology to catch up. Once that happens, we will most likely be able to leave our phones behind and walk around with just our Apple Glasses!
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I'm interested in how this technology will develop. Not sure if this is the future, but we will see.
I am too. I personally believe that it has the potential to replace smartphones and tablets at the least. If or not that potential is realised is another thing.