Should You Care About AR/VR?

Dante Vertolli
Aug 25, 2017 · 4 min read

VR and AR are two acronyms that you may have seen thrown around as the new frontier for technology. Companies big and small are running around saying that this will change everything, but watching someone wear a goofy looking headset and bump into walls doesn’t seem very transformative. So what gives?

To start off, let’s run through what exactly this new technology entails. VR, or Virtual Reality, is an immersive experience whereby the user is visually transported into some new experience, typically through the use of a special headset. So far, this technology has gained the most traction in the video games industry, where companies like HTC and Sony have had decent success in pushing VR as the next frontier for immersive gaming.


AR, or Augmented Reality, is a bit more complex. AR takes the real world around you and overlays digital objects in order to provide some kind of utility. Typically, AR requires a device that is able to read the environment and place digital objects on detected surfaces. At the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple unveiled ARKit, a new software development kit that will allow developers to leverage the camera and processing power of the iPhone in your pocket to perform functions in Augmented Reality. With the release of iOS 11 coming in the next few weeks, the iPhone is poised to become the leading AR platform in the world, pretty much overnight.

But why should you care? Well, apart from being a really cool tool that developers can use to make sweet new selfie filters, ARKit will enable new types of applications never before seen on a mobile device.

Want to measure something just by pointing your phone at it? That app is in development.

Want to see what a new table is going to look like in your kitchen? That app is in development.

Want to see what a custom paint job will do to your car? That app is in development.


The applications for this new tech go on and on, in both the consumer and enterprise space. I watched a video of a demo of a new app that will allow airlines to perform more efficient pre-flight checks on their airplanes. Indirectly, ARKit might reduce your wait times at the airport!

The real transformation will happen once companies develop eyewear of some sort that enables the use of this AR technology without having to hold our phones in front of our faces. Picture wearing your regular prescription glasses and having a map overlay on the environment in front of you. Google tried that a little while ago with Glass, but ultimately the product was too nascent and lacked enough utility to justify its high price tag. Apple is rumoured to be developing glasses that leverage their new API, so keep an eye out for that!

This guy is Mixing all kinds of Realities

For the past little while, Microsoft has been running around talking about their push into AR with a device called the HoloLens. Microsoft typically calls this their “Mixed Reality” headset, which Microsoft considers more of a gradient of device experiences, whereby some headsets might “Mix” reality more than others. Yeah, it’s confusing. The long and the short of it is that Microsoft has been demoing this stuff for a while now to its developers, so why hasn’t it taken off?

Well, it turns out that there are a few reasons. First, in its current form, the device is enormous and frankly, you’d look like an idiot walking around in that thing. Second, it’s incredibly expensive, coming in at a sweat-inducing $3999. Thirdly, it is very clearly not ready for consumers yet. If you go to Microsoft’s website, the Developer Edition costs $3999 and the Commercial Suite costs $6669. As far as I can tell, for that extra $2670, you get additional warranty and a couple of extra software features. Seems reasonable.

If you ask me, it looks as though Microsoft is suffering from a classic chicken and egg problem. Developers are going to go where the money is, and right now the HoloLens just doesn’t have the user base necessary to justify the high cost of development. However, when you consider Apple’s ARKit, things are a bit different. When iOS 11 goes live, over 1 billion devices will support these new AR apps. That seems like a pretty good incentive to develop some kick-ass apps.


If I haven’t make it abundantly clear, I believe that AR will have a much greater effect on technology as a whole than VR will. VR is too sequestered in its own existence to move beyond time-limited experiences. VR might enable some cool new media consumption experiences, but ultimately AR is capable of changing the landscape of computing.

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Dante Vertolli

Written by

Rotman MBA student. Passionate about technology and the future. Scholar and a Gentleman.

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