LONDON: People like to point out that Steve Jobs, remarkable as he was, didn’t actually invent the smartphone. Nor did he invent the home computer, the MP3 player or the tablet. What he did, of course, was create a breakthrough version of all of those technologies that people actually wanted to use – sending Apple on its way to becoming the US$2.7 trillion juggernaut it is today.
One criticism of his successor as chief executive officer, meanwhile, is that he is yet to come up with a bold new idea of his own. Tim Cook, the steady-handed supply chain expert, has instead built on top of those existing successes. Even the Apple Watch, which came out almost four years after Jobs’ death, had the late visionary’s input in the development, if not the execution.
Finally, we may be about to see a Cook innovation. And boy, what a risk it is: A punt on a new technology quite unlike any in Apple’s past.
VENTURE INTO MIXED-REALITY
In June, at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple is expected to share long-awaited details of its mixed reality headset; a device that offers both augmented reality and virtual reality. The first overlays imagery onto your real surroundings; the second immerses you in a fully digital environment.
At the onset, Apple’s headset will not be a mass-market product. At US$3,000, according to reporting by Bloomberg, it will be almost seven times as expensive as Meta Platforms’ Quest 2, the biggest-selling VR headset – 18 million units to date, according to CCS Insight.
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