Apple’s stalling autonomous car project caused the company to shift its attention to augmented reality, according to analyst Ming Chi Kuo, who says the company is racing ahead of the competition when it comes to AR.
In a new note to investors, the KGI Securities analyst says Apple’s decision to develop a self-driving platform instead of an entire electric car makes sense. The company will use augmented reality to provide an incredible experience, he predicts.
“We expect Apple to generate preliminary results for AR in the next 1-2 years at the earliest and working with iPhone may be the first step,” said Kuo in his report, which was obtained by MacRumors.
Apple AR initiative
Kuo predicts that Apple will benefit from a few advantages over its rivals. Cupertino could enjoy a 3-to-5-year lead over competitors by redefining AR experiences on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. New business fields like autonomous driving systems will also help the company put its AR software everywhere.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook has hinted that Apple is highly interested in augmented reality. The Apple CEO said he thinks it will be even more popular than virtual reality.
Companies like Oculus (now owned by Facebook), Google, Sony and Samsung have all come out with VR headsets recently. It looks like Apple may avoid the market entirely, for now.
VR will be supplanted by AR by 2018 as the main market focus, claims Kuo. The combined AR and VR markets could be worth up to $150 billion by 2020, with AR taking the bulk of the revenue.
Apple supposedly has hundreds of engineers developing both AR and VR headsets. It also scooped up a number of augmented-reality companies such as Metaio and hired some big names in VR and AR.
