Nearly 15 years after the iPhone sparked the smartphone revolution, Apple is integrating parts that it hopes will be a replacement for its next industry device: the headset, which integrates the digital world with the real world.

The company hired Hollywood directors such as John Favreau to create video content A headset that will hit the market next yearAccording to three people familiar with this project. Favro, the executive producer of Apple TV + ‘s “Prehistoric Planet”, is working on reviving the dinosaurs in this series on headphones, which They look like ski goggles and are designed to offer a virtual and augmented reality experience.These people celebrated.

Separately, at the annual Developers Conference on Monday, Apple plans to release software tools that will allow apps to add new camera and sound features that laid the groundwork. Contactless interface that allows users to navigate the headsetAccording to two people familiar with the project and the documents discussed by it New York Times.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Mueller declined to comment on future projects. Favreau’s spokesman could not be reached for comment.

The headphone project will lead Apple to a new competition to determine the future of mixed reality. Microsoft, Google and Facebook parent company Meta are in various stages of software and hardware development to create An environment in which 3D digital images and the physical world coexist.

Last year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg abandoned the name Facebook as the name for his company and promised to generate a concept known as metaversion, in which the Internet, virtual and real worlds meet in a new world. He and others believe this could be the next wave of computer technology following the smartphone era dominated by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android software, as well as these platforms followed by Windows and Macintosh for decades.

“This is the next frontier,” said Carolina Milanes, a technology analyst at Creative Strategies, a technology research firm. “For Apple, this is a new computing experience and the ability to engage consumers with devices and new experiences based on what they have done with respect to content.“.

Mixed reality work is expected to be overshadowed by Apple’s conference on Monday, which will be largely dedicated to the company’s existing software systems. Analysts say Apple may announce an updated MacBook Air with a thinner bezel around the screen than current models and updated processors.

Developing Apple’s virtual reality software content and tools is crucial to creating the experience that reflects its upcoming headphones. His big new product, the Apple Watch, came out with nearly 3,000 apps, but tried to catch on because tech critics said some of those apps were useful. The Meta’s Quest virtual reality headset, which sold 10 million copies last year, has suffered similar shortcomings as many consider it a gaming device.

From its original Macintosh to iPad, Apple has found products that appeal to potential customers and have a variety of uses. It is estimated that it sold 240 million iPhones last year, which is about half of its total sales of $ 366 billion. For a headset to be valuable, analysts say, it must have features that transcend the niche of the gaming world.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been talking about the potential of augmented reality for years. In 2016, he reassured investors that the company was investing heavily in it and considered it a “great business opportunity.” Many on Apple campus back then read “Ready Player One,” a futuristic novel about virtual reality, and talked about Apple’s ability to create a mixed reality world.

Apple has hired Dolby Technologies engineer Mike Rockwell and commissioned him to lead the initiative. His early attempts to create an augmented reality product were hampered by poor processing capacity, revealed two people familiar with the project. These people say battery problems have forced Apple to postpone its launch until next year.

The augmented reality initiative has caused a rift at Apple. At least two members of his industrial design team said they left the company, in part because they had some concerns about development. A product that can change the way people interact with each other. This sensitivity has increased amid growing public concern about the time children spend inside the company on screen.

At the head of Rockwell, the product will be one of the first to come out of Apple led by its team of engineers, not its co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, and its former chief designer, Johnny Ivy. The company left in 2019. The Apple Watch project was led by Ivy and its designers, who defined its appearance, function and marketing.

Favreau programming shows how Apple is trying to differentiate its product from the product offered by Meta. It also illustrates how the company uses the relationships it has been cultivating in Hollywood since the release of Apple TV + in 2019.

“Incredible headphones can give you a better experience than an 80-inch TVSaid Matt Misniex, CEO of LivingCities.xyz, a meta-technology startup.

Apple’s software tools continue to push for many years to encourage developers to create augmented reality applications. The company launched the initiative in 2017 with ARKit, which allowed developers to use iPhone cameras and motion sensors to place digital objects in the real world and allow people to interact with them.

However, according to a Creative Strategies survey of more than 500 developers, about 70 percent of Apple developers said they do not use this tool.

The set of tools Apple will present at the conference gives software developers new opportunities to use shortcuts in their apps using Siri and QR codes, interactions that will be used in future headphones, said a project acquaintance.

© New York Times 2022