AR Will Be So 'Profound' That People Will Wonder How We Lived Without It

Tim Cook
CEO of Apple

Apple is one of the largest tech companies in the world. While its products are highly sought after, the company rarely announces future products.

But when it comes to Augmented Reality (AR), Apple is so certain that the technology can disrupt almost everything in life, that CEO Tim Cook is confident to say that once people are used with using the technology it in earnest, they will not be able to go back to life without it.

Speaking at Università Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Naples, Italy, Cook said that people will soon wonder how humanity led a life without augmented reality, stressing the "profound" impact AR will have on the not so distant future.

"I'm super excited about augmented reality. Because I think that we've had a great conversation here today, but if we could augment that with something from the virtual world, it would have arguably been even better."

"So I think that if you, and this will happen clearly not too long from now, if you look back at a point in time, you know, zoom out to the future and look back, you'll wonder how you led your life without augmented reality."

Tim Cook

Tim Cook made the statement during a Q&A session with students.

And this was his answer, when he was asked about what future technologies excite him the most.

Besides calling AI a "fundamental, horizontal technology that will touch everything in our lives," and emphasized about the Apple Watch to "many other things" Apple is working on, Cook's interest also includes AR.

Cook said that Apple is already into developing the technology to welcome the possibilities.

"In the future, people will wonder how we lived without AR."

"We’re investing a ton in that space."

While visiting Europe, Cook also sat down with various media publications. And during those moments, he has been mentioning AR for multiple times during discussions.

"Like I said, we are really going to look back and think about how we once lived without AR."

"It's something you can really immerse yourself in. And that can be used in a good way."

"But I don't think you want to live your whole life that way. VR is for set periods, but not a way to communicate well. So I'm not against it, but that's how I look at it."

But more importantly, Cook stressed his excitement by suggesting that AR's impact to the world would be as profound as the internet itself.

"Just like today, we wonder, how did people like me grow up without the internet. And so I think it could be that profound, and it's not going to be profound overnight."

In the modern world of technology, where most people are already living with mobile devices and readily-available internet, users are taking modern technologies for granted, that some may think that they cannot live without them.

And AR is the technology so disrupting that it can be considered an equal to the internet.