Apple Inc. finally sent out press invitations to a special presentation to be held on September 12. The invite simply reads, “Let’s meet at our place. Please join us for the first-ever event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino." This confirms suspicions that Apple will hold its first product announcement at their brand new Apple Park headquarters, which was designed by Steve Jobs.
Apple Inc. has a history of surprising and delighting their customers with unexpected announcements at special events, but in recent history leaks and rumors have made that increasingly difficult to do. Many media outlets had reported about Apple Watch before its launch, and even the HomePod SDK has spilled some details about upcoming products from Apple.
What I think is different about this event is that Apple has updated nearly every product they make outside of the iPhone and Apple TV this year. They even announced HomePod at WWDC 2017 as well as an iMac that can actually run VR HMDs. What is left for them to blow customers away this year? Do they even have one more thing?
It seems that Apple may have tipped their hand with the roll out of ARKit, a software development kit built for augmented reality. ARKit was demoed using iPhone at WWDC 2017 and many developers have posted some cool demos using iOS 11 Beta. While I think AR has a bright future as part of the smartphone operating system, I can't help but wonder what other product categories may spawn from the upcoming augmented reality revolution.
Point of View Capture
Snapchat Spectacles have not gained a lot of traction with consumers, but they are a proof of one concept that I believe could be valuable for augmented reality. Point of view capture is going to be important to create truly immersive AR experiences. While, I don't think Apple should necessarily make glasses that are as goofy looking as Snapchat's first effort, I believe there is merit in figuring out a point of view capture device with a form factor that would work as a complement to iPhone. This would be much like how the Apple Watch works alongside iPhone. Apple would certainly be doing right by their founder if they were to announce a new product category like this at their first presentation at Apple Park's Steve Jobs Theater.
Holographic Projector
Apple Inc. acquired Primesense, the company behind the technology in the original Xbox Kinect, in 2013 and has yet to use the tech in a single product. This motion and depth sensor technology has plenty of applications, and iPhone 8 is rumored to feature a rear-facing laser that would be based on Primesense tech. There are plenty of patents that companies file for products that they never design, but one patent at Apple that I can't get out of my head is for a stereoscopic display that would create 3D images without the use of glasses. Much like how Apple reinvented the phone by getting rid of the keyboard, they could turn the television market on its head by releasing a display that was a more moderately-priced projector with new user interface features.
Many folks might not know that the first demonstration of iPhone and iPad's multitouch user interface was done with a large projector in Apple's design lab. The company has been working on a ton of different gesture-based interfaces for the past decade, but nothing has yet to materialize.
One More Thing...
Apple Park was designed by Steve Jobs with a team of architects that he handpicked. I believe that Apple understands how important this moment is for their loyal fans, who have put up with some difficult times in the past 6 years since his passing. It is extremely important that Apple Inc. wow customers at this event. It is entirely possible that an iPhone with an amazing new AR feature will be good enough for shareholders to stay invested in the largest company in the world, but the long-term success of the company will rest with how they position themselves for the next decade. Augmented reality definitely seems to be the bet that Apple is willing to make, and it is only a matter of time until we find out how customers will react to the new vision of the future.
Keep it locked onto Shacknews and our sister site Modojo.com as we bring you the latest developments surrounding the Apple Special Presentation on September 12.
Why did I sell Apple? Check out this article to find out.
Full Disclosure:
At the time of this article, Asif A. Khan, his family members, and his company Virtue LLC had the following positions:
Long Apple via AAPL shares and options
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replyAsif Khan posted a new article, Apple Has One Chance to Make a First Impression at Steve Jobs Theater on September 12
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No they don't. We are going to buy their shit regardless and tune in next time to do the same.
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Gotta love reacting to the article's headline instead of reading.
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Our Lumia 950's are getting pretty long in the tooth. Web browsing has become pretty painful at this point and the lack of apps that I rely on (LastPass) having good experiences even though they do have a presence on the platform as well as Microsoft's continued silence on any sort of direction for mobile has us considering something non-Windows based for the first time in years.
Guess we'll see what Apple has to offer. I really don't want to go back to Apple but...-
Honestly I've been happier with my iPhone than I was when I was on Windows Phone, or even Android for that matter. The hardware is solid just works. Everything supports it. Even if MS hadn't killed Windows Phone I wouldn't go back now. I can still access all the MS services I need to from the iOS platform.
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I think John Gruber’s prediction on the iPhones is intriguing. He thinks they’re going to change the naming to try and get out of the numeric treadmill.
So instead of announcing
iPhone 7S
iPhone 7S Plus
iPhone 8
They’ll announce
iPhone
iPhone Plus
iPhone Pro
Whether that’s a good idea is debatable. Being able to tell people what phone you have because that’s it’s name is maybe a good sales point versus Galaxy S(n+1)
They tried this with the third generation iPad (aka “The New iPad”) and it didn’t go over well, especially since the fourth generation iPad game just six months later so they said never mind and made iPad Air and iPad Air 2.
But they did that recent $349 iPad they just called “iPad” and it sold gangbusters. So now they have
iPad mini (4)
iPad
iPad Pro
Who knows.-
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More like Nintendo
"New ds"
"New 3ds"
"New 3dslite"
Insert that picture of like 6 names for same product.
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3D Touch is a gimmick because not all the phones have it yet. It’s one of the issues Apple has - they make these neat new features but there’s a lag time between their introduction and ubiquitous adoption because most people try to go a couple of years or more on a phone due to its expense (and, historically, two year contracts with carriers)
One of the issues with things like 3D Touch is that you don’t see it adopted widely until way more than half of developers have the phones in their hands. Everyone on the previous tick cycle (6/6+, not 6S/6S+) don’t have the feature so it doesn’t make it into apps. And Apple’s been bad about making easy ways for their iPhone Simulators in Xcode be able to simulate these features as well.
That said if they keep making and updating the SE and they don’t add 3D Touch then yeah, it will remain a gimmick.
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a strange prediction when this already tried and failed completely with the iPad. It serves no purpose. They have a very simple naming convention that is very useful.
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One of the rumors about the iPhone 8 is that something about it (maybe Touch ID behind the screen?) is not producing high yields. Apple needs to be able to make tens of millions of these things and they can’t afford to wait until next year or don’t want to. And the phone is rumored to be more expensive, possibly for the same reason.
There could be bad blowback if they release this amazing new iPhone 8 and yet most people can’t buy it. Like, there’s frequently issues with supply shortages immediately after a phone is released but this is rumored to be worse.
Ergo, a name that denoted a premium and a constrained supply might make sense. It’s not the iPhone 8 that’s the phone for everyone it’s the iPhone Pro, the phone for... pros I guess.
That said the odds of us being less than two weeks out from a major name change and no rumors of it whatsoever is unlikely so it’ll probably be iPhone 8.
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That would make a ton of sense. That means they probably won't do it.
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I still get very excited by these announcements. The iOS 11 stuff looks great. I can't wait for that to launch. The hardware excites me less now that I have moved to buying refurbished S cycle devices. I'll always been a year behind the latest and greatest. But it makes the most financial sense for me to do it that way.
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