Tim Cook: Augmented reality is "huge", like the iPhone

It is no secret that, for some time now, Apple has been interested in the practical applications of both VR and AR in mobile. In January of last year, CEO Tim Cook revealed his timid enthusiasm for the future of virtual reality, calling the technology “cool and interesting.” Around the same time, rumors began circulating that Apple had assembled a new team tasked with the development of a VR headset of some sort.

Although Apple's alleged VR project currently exists in the realm of speculation only, last week, a Gear VR-like headset popped up in the Apple Store – the first official product of its kind to be sold by Apple. This further confirmed Apple's interest in the technology, and further incited speculations regarding the company's supposed secretive project.

In an interesting turn of events, amid all the fuss about VR, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently also expressed his excitement in working with augmented reality, calling the technology “a big idea, like the smartphone.”

In a recent interview with The Independent, Cook was asked about his opinion on AR and its possible future implementations in smartphones. He had this to say:



Cook's stance on AR is refreshingly, and somewhat unexpectedly, very positive, but it is evident by his statement that he regards the technology as still in its infancy, which means that we may not see any wide or meaningful implementation of AR in Apple products in the near future.

Curiously, in the same interview, Cook went on to compare AR and VR, visibly favoring the former again as a technology that can bring join the virtual and real worlds together, without the user having to “lock themselves out from the world.”