Apple’s AR Glasses Will Replace Your TV
It’s been long rumored and almost confirmed that Apple is working on AR glasses.
This is big. Given Apple’s design and launch-ready standards, there is a good chance this product will truly be ready for consumers. This is in heavy contrast to the existing AR headsets available — Microsoft’s HoloLens, MagicLeap, and Meta 2, all still being more or less developer-only products.
If you’d like an analysis of all three of these headsets, we reviewed them here: Part 1: Top 3 Augmented Reality Headsets
The consumer markets that I believe AR headsets will begin to penetrate are in the workplace and home entertainment industries.
In both of these markets, my best guess is that the first physical experience to be replaced by AR will be displays. First, the software to create TV/monitor-like displays is easier to build than other AR experiences. Also there is a clear and immediate benefit to the users — they can have multiple screens, the size of their choosing, that can be shared with other headset wearers.
In the last 4 years, there has been an upward trend of the sale of smart TVs, and projections show sales will continue to increase until 2025. However, this projection is likely to be proven wrong when AR headsets hit the market. I believe that there will be correlation between the decrease in TV sales and the increase of AR consumer usage.
Agree or not, consider the fact that currently a consumer can walk into Walmart and buy a 65 inch 4k television for $499! Other consumers are willing to spend upwards of $3000+ on premier brand 65 inch 4k OLED televisions. This existing consumer desire indicates how much people love their glowing rectangular boxes.
If Apple’s AR headset ONLY offered a TV/monitor of the size of your choosing, to hang in front of your face, in the position you desired, controlled simply by your existing iOS device at a reasonable price point, that would be enough for the average individual to take the leap to buy.
Also, the person using this device wouldn’t have to use it outside of their home, removing the Google ‘glasshole’ problem.
Here are a few examples where this kind of experience would surpass looking at a physical screen:
1. Netflix and Chill
Imagine laying on the couch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, looking up at your ceiling, and there hangs a 300 inch LCD monitor in the air.
(Below: If you have any VR enabled device, you should try the Netflix app; it’s pretty damn relaxing).
One issue may be the need to purchase a pair of glasses for your wife and kids. The co-founder of this publication, Marcus Moretti, brought up the point that there is an inherent saving in buying AR glasses — you no longer need to purchase multiple TVs for throughout your house. You may end up paying a bit more in the end, but that’s the price of new innovation (and to buy Apple products), right?
In contrast to the examples below, this is by far the most likely use case in the near future.
2. Everyone Please Put your Seat Backs and Tray Tables in the Upright Position
Squeezing into an airplane seat and no longer needing to watch a downloaded Netflix movie on your iPhone because you have a 32 inch screen floating in front of you sounds pretty awesome to me. Now you don’t have to buy one of those bulky iPhone cases that can be propped up so you don’t have to rest your hands on your tray table when they get tired holding up your phone.
3. Apple Glasses 3.0
In the hopefully not too far future, you can wait in line for the launch of Apple Glasses 3, while watching a beautiful trailer of the device you are about to buy, narrated by Johnny Ives’s soothing voice, on a screen of the size of your choosing that follows your head movements.
Given the price points of the HoloLens at $3,000-$5,000 and the Meta 2 at $1,495, if Apple came somewhere in-between those prices, I believe that their experience would completely leapfrog over the existing TV market and initiate its decline.
All of this leads to the main prediction and conclusion: If a fraction of the above rings out to be true, why would Apple continue to work on its Apple TV at all? They should just replace the entire experience with their AR glasses.
I hope, at the very least, Apple makes an attempt to replace your everyday monitor. Marcus Moretti brought up a great point that you will have options to choose different kinds of AR TV and ARKit specific apps from the Apple App Store. There will be a lot of amazing product and content innovation once this becomes a reality.
I hope to soon be carrying just my phone and keyboard in my backpack so I can type this post on a 40 inch UltraWide monitor, floating in front of my face at the library.
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