Predicting Next Big Apple Move: Will the Company Turn to Holograms?
By Rob Scott
August 10, 2012
August 10, 2012
- As Apple preps the launch of its next-generation iPhone with bigger screen, Businessweek offers a prediction: “Apple devices will soon project holograms like you’ve never seen.”
- “This is not mere speculation,” suggests the article, “but insight based on Apple’s patents, recent acquisitions, and the business imperative to do something to break free of the tablet clutter.”
- The company patented a 3D display system in 2010 that would “mimic a hologram” and allow multiple users to view stereoscopic images simultaneously.
- Businessweek offers several reasons why Apple would be interested in 3D screens, despite the technology’s slow adoption.
- “Apple is the second-mover that makes failed first-mover ideas work,” notes the article, citing the company’s successful improvements upon Xerox’s mouse and Microsoft’s early pen-based Tablet PC. “Toshiba is now selling a 55-inch 3D television in Asia that doesn’t require glasses for viewing the effect. Do you think Apple will let such advances in screen technology pass it by?”
- “Apple’s hologram technology will be different — and completely realistic,” adds the article, noting that the patent allows freedom of movement for each viewer without the need for special glasses, while taking into consideration ambient lighting and personal identification.
- Recent acquisitions of 3D modeling businesses including C3 Technologies and Poly9 also serve as an indicator.
- Apple will need to forge a new direction if faced with the possibility of touchscreens becoming irrelevant (the article notes Disney’s Touché “swept frequency capacitive sensing” system as a potential disruptor in this regard).
- “As tablets become commodities, it’s not hard to predict the design battle will move from hardware to the virtual visual realm. Even Sir Jonathan Ive can take glass panes only so far,” comments Businessweek. “I don’t know if an iPhone 5 will hold holograms, but eventually Apple will serve us 3D images — because while anyone can copy a glass tablet, not everyone can make the world float in your hand.”
No Comments Yet
You can be the first to comment!
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.