Apple would already have more than 1,000 employees working in augmented reality; analyst points out news for this year

As some rumors point out and even Tim Cook himself has already hinted, Apple is most likely working on something related to augmented reality. Now the Business Insider revealed a UBS survey by analyst Steven Milunovoch, who believes in the possibility of AR being the “next highlight” of Apple products, starting this year.

Augmented reality

According to Milunovoch, Apple would bring hardware with AR support for iPads and iPhones, such as sensors, 3D camera and chipsets customized, all scheduled for the next three years.

Fortunately, he says that we can already expect news in this field this year, with the “iPhone 8”, which is supposed to have a moderate 3D mapping using stereoscopic vision, based on the location and simultaneous mapping technology. In fact, perhaps a patent registered by Apple back in 2011 can contribute to this bet.

The analyst also stated – bringing industry-related sources – that “there may already be more than 1,000 engineers in Israel working on projects that could be related to AR ”. The location may be related to the Israeli company PrimeSense – bought by Apple in 2013 -, responsible for the three-dimensional sensor used by Microsoft’s Kinect.

Despite this, Milunovoch expects Apple to launch the new AR features gradually, until the technology becomes more popular and “reaches a maturity level suitable for the Apple brand”. That is, the technology would need to “fit and grow” within Apple, and the company would do so by releasing an SDK for RA that would integrate with iOS. The analyst also reinforces the rumors of virtual reality glasses, which may be launched by the company – as he bets – still in 2017.

Rumors about Apple’s relationship with RA / RV are very strong and appear more and more frequently. Anyway, if the bets are correct, we will see something new about it soon.

[via MacRumors]