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Bloomberg has published some details about Apple’s work on virtual reality, an area the company has been devoting huge amounts of resources to for some time now, and has even bought several related companies recently.
It seems the company is working on a viewer similar to those already developed by Oculus VR, HTC and many other competitors, using its new microprocessors, a fabric exterior and apparently a fan (weird, considering Apple’s obsession for removing fans altogether from many of its products), and which is supposed to be a precursor to future developments in augmented reality, with possible launch dates in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Beyond the technical characteristics, Apple’s approach is interesting. Virtual or augmented reality are enjoying a moment not so much as a product category but as its potential for reinvention: they have always been relatively niche products, either oriented towards gaming or other activities, such as Google’s launch of the Google Glass, which clearly failed.
The comparison with previous Apple products is obvious: before the company launched its first personal computers, they were products used by professionals and industry, but it effectively reinvented the computer and made it truly personal, a product that regular people would want to buy. The same happened with its MP3 player, the iPod, which succeeded in a category in which there were thousands of competitors, thanks to a reinvention of its approach. The same happened with the smartphone and with tablets: product categories in which there were multiple competitors and initiatives, none of whom had enjoyed much success.
This type of reinvention is fundamentally based on an aggressive redefinition of the value proposition for the user: with the iPod, for example, we went from seeing the MP3 player as just that, a player, to seeing it as a place where we could store our entire music collection organized through an application and, if we wanted, a record store. With the iPhone, we no longer saw it as a phone, but as a pocket computer. Apple was by no means the first to do this, but it doesn’t matter, because most pioneers have been forgotten by history. It’s not about being the first, it’s about redefining a products. It’s not about doing it, it’s about doing it right, and being able to exercise leadership over the category and the market.
Let’s try to crack Apple’s ability to lead a whole industry: seen in this light, and considering that Apple already has more than enough credibility when it comes to redefining products… how is it going to reinvent virtual and augmented reality? What could we use a viewer or glasses for that we haven’t already, that would take them from being a niche device to something we all want to own? Beyond the technical or design aspects, what value propositions or uses can we come up with, besides video games, that would turn a virtual reality viewer into a product with Apple’s unmistakable stamp, capable of drastically redefining our relationship with the category, and that other competitors have yet to discover?
