In June Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple's Senior VP of Software says that Apple will have the Largest AR Platform in the World." Apple's CEO is so excited about AR apps coming to iOS 11 that he wants to scream. Clearly Apple outsmarted Google for focusing on Augmented Reality first instead of Virtual Reality like Google.
Today a new IDC report notes today that "Consumer-focused AR headsets are still some way off, as most people will first experience AR through the screen on their phone," said Tom Mainelli, vice president, Devices and AR/VR at IDC. "Now that Apple and Google are both focused on helping developers create AR experiences on their platforms—through ARKit for iOS and ARCore for Android—we can expect to see a flood of new AR apps appearing on smartphones later this year and into next. These developments should eventually lead to consumer-centric AR glasses, but that won't happen in meaningful volume, at affordable price points, for some time."
How nice of IDC in trying to put Apple and ARKit on even ground with Google's copycat effort. Let's be clear, Apple will step on Google's head this holiday season and its well deserved for intelligently picking the right horse for the market this year.
It was wise of Apple to focus on Augmented Reality first as IDC's report notes that "Growth in the VR market has been rather sluggish compared to other recently introduced technologies as the amount of investment and, more importantly, the need for end user education is extremely high for VR," said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC's Mobile Device Trackers.
The number one VR headset vendor noted in the IDC report was Samsung, but they only shipped 568,000 units in Q2. And considering how Samsung is famous for giving their VR headsets away for promotional reasons, it's not really a unit number that anyone can bank on as being reflective of the market actually "buying" these cheap VR headsets.
All in all Apple looks like they'll be the clear winner for the holiday quarter and clearly the leader in Augmented Reality once AR hits iOS 11.
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