Apple’s next big leap might be into augmented reality

Education, industry making use of projected computerized images

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple’s iPhone may be ready for its next big act — as a springboard into “augmented reality,” a technology that projects life-like images into real-world settings viewed through a screen.

If you’ve heard about AR at all, it’s most likely because you’ve encountered “Pokemon Go,” a game in which players wander around trying to capture monsters they can see on their phones. AR is also making its way into education and some industrial applications, such as product assembly and warehouse inventory management.

Now Apple is hoping to transform the technology from a geeky sideshow into a mass-market phenomenon. It’s embedding AR-ready technology into its iPhones later this year, potentially setting the stage for a rush of new apps that blur the line between reality and digital representation in new and imaginative ways.

CEO Tim Cook hailed AR as a “profound” technology in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek in June.

“I am so excited about it, I just want to yell out and scream,” Cook said. Many analysts agree. “This is the most important platform that Apple has created since the app store in 2008,” said Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research.

Augmenting the iPhone

At Apple, the introduction of AR gets underway in September with the release of iOS 11, the next version of the operating system that powers hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads.

Tucked in that release is an AR toolkit intended to help software developers create AR apps.

Those apps, however, won’t work on just any Apple device — only the iPhone 6S and later models, including the nextgeneration iPhone that Apple will release this fall. The 2017 iPad and iPad Pro will run AR apps as well.

For now, the iPhone remains Apple’s dominant product, accounting for 55% of Apple’s $45.4 billion in revenue during the three months ended in June. The total revenue represented a 7% increase from the same time last year.

Apple isn’t the only company betting big on AR. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg talked up the technology at a company presentation in May, calling it a “really important technology that changes how we use our phones.” Apple rivals such as Google and Microsoft are also starting to deploy AR systems.

Tim Merel, managing director of technology consulting firm Digi-Capital, believes Apple’s entry into AR will catalyze the field. His firm expects AR to mushroom into an $83 billion market by 2021, up from $1.2 billion last year.

That estimate assumes that Apple and its rivals will expand beyond AR software to high-tech glasses and other devices, such as Microsoft’s HoloLens headset.

For now, though, nothing appears better suited for interacting with AR than the smartphone. Google already makes AR software called Tango that debuted on one Lenovo smartphone last year and will be part of another high-end device from Asus this month.