Image via ExtremeTech
Before 1977, computers were largely relegated to the business environment. In fact, at the time, many people didn’t even know what a computer was, sure they had heard about them, but most people only knew them as the room filling boxes as portrayed in science fiction. This all changed when Apple released the Apple II, and made the personal computer a household name. Augmented Reality, or AR for short, is in a similar position in 2019 as the computer was in the mid 1970. People have heard of AR before, some have even seen it in games and apps like Pokemon GO or Snapchat, but most people don’t know about AR outside of gimmicky entertainment or what it can really do. In the enterprise world, however, AR has been a presence for sometime now. Business have incorporated AR headsets into their workforces serving many different purposes and a majority of the AR headsets on the market have been made for the enterprise environment. Companies like Microsoft and Google have developed their own AR headsets targeted directly for enterprise use, with no offerings for standard consumers. Companies like Magic Leap have tried to do this, but their attempts have largely been seen as failures and their products have failed to escape a small tech savvy inner circle of users. If any company could finally break AR into the mainstream, its Apple. Using their brand-driven outreach, Apple could create a AR device that could generate a buzz similar to the iPhone or iPad at their releases, and amass a user base large enough to make the technology mainstream. Recent rumors, however, have said that Apple’s Ar headset will be less like Magic Leap’s attempts and more in line with those of Google and Microsoft. This would betray everything Steve Jobs did for the company and everything the company stands for. Apple is about making things accessible, whether that be new technologies, information, or through making difficult to use and clunky apps or devices into well designed and easy to navigate products. If the real Apple, the company that Steve Jobs started and the one based on his vision, made an AR headset, it would be accessibly priced and available to all, and it would change the world, just like the Apple II all those years ago.