While reviewing my previously published impressions regarding Apple’s event, and rewatching bits of the keynote, I realised I’ve left out something I feel I should mention: Augmented Reality (AR). I could have included this with my notes and update my previous piece but, although I don’t have a lot to say on this subject, it perhaps deserves a separate treatment.

This is, I think, the third Apple event where we were shown a few AR demos. This time the excuse was the introduction of ARKit 2. Maybe it’s too early to judge, maybe I’ll be proven wrong down the road, but so far I haven’t seen any truly compelling implementation of AR. A nice exception, I’ll admit, was the Homecourt app. The execution looks solid, but most importantly, it’s one of those cases when you think of possible alternative implementations and come up with nothing that’s equally effective and effortless. As for the rest, I’ve seen several examples of little apps made with ARKit, and very often my reaction has been: That’s a cool effect, but that kind of user experience is just awkward or cumbersome. So far, most of what you do with AR has to be done using the device (iPhone, iPad) as both viewfinder and controller. That gets impractical really soon. 

Gaming — which is something Apple seems to insist upon — is a particularly unfortunate example. Maybe I’m getting old, but dancing around while pointing an iPhone or iPad at surfaces around me isn’t my idea of fun. All the AR games or gaming experiences showcased during an Apple event so far haven’t struck me as being really immersive, either. Quite the contrary: AR seems to add a layer of detachment, and it feels as if you’re interacting with an illusion, a mirage that only your device sees and you have to rely on whatever you see through it to act within a game. In this regard, I personally found playing Wii tennis or bowling to be more engaging and fun. 

If there’s indeed a next step in gaming, I consider Virtual Reality (VR) to be a more promising candidate overall. The current gear is crude and awkward, granted, but VR can potentially offer an unparalleled degree of immersion. Once you suit up for your VR experience, you may look ridiculous on the outside, but you are catapulted inside the experience. You are surrounded by it. You don’t have to move around looking through a device you’re constantly holding in front of you, always adjusting angle and distance, and having to interact with both the device and what you see through it.

Apple appears to believe a lot in AR, and again, perhaps they’ll turn out to be right in the end, but at the moment I simply see AR as Apple’s equivalent of Google Glass. Something that could be very useful within a specific, specialised range of use cases, but not the Next Big Thing the company is hoping for.