Game developers believe that AR will be the dominant immersive technology

Apple is well known for its quiet moves. The company has made the world believe in the secret more when it acquired Spaces, a developer of location-based VR experience that recently pivoted to launch a VR extension for videoconferencing platforms like Zoom and Skype.

Apple, from time-to-time, buys such startups to boost its artificial intelligence power and bring development and innovation to the company. Spaces is no different. Remarkably, Spaces comes with much further insight on AI to bring a long-pending technology to the Apple industry. It is expected that the acquisition would lead to a long-rumored augmented reality (AR) platform, or it could be used for something altogether different and innovative. All eyes are now focused on what enlightenment the collaboration is going to bring.

About Spaces

Spaces is a startup created by DreamWorks Animation veterans in 2016. The startup has been developing VR products since then. One of its fascinating features was the zoom add-on that allowed users to hold virtual reality video conferencing using animated avatars. It energized the zoom users with its technological breakthrough during the time of a pandemic.

What can be expected out of the accession?

The tech experts assume that Apple’s acquisition will end up incorporated into an AR headset that will hit in the next one or two years. But all is not good for Apple. It is up to the company and the market to get a hit out of the collaboration. The reason behind the scare is earlier AR headsets didn’t generate much interest. For example, Magic Leap is struggling to find an acquirer amidst significant layoffs. However, it is a truth that the phone-based AR has yielded some commercial hits like Pokemon Go.

Augmented reality is one of the biggest technological trends right now. It is going to grow further with the unfolding of smartphones and other devices. Augmented reality overlays digital content and information onto the physical world as if they are actually there. For example, a dog could play with its cartoon counterpart through AR technology. The AR emergence has a high potential to bring a big change to the technology sector.

Earlier this year, it was predicted that ‘Apple Glass’ headset will wirelessly tether to the user’s iPhone, relying on the latter’s processing power to deliver AR experiences. Jon Prosser gave this hint. He also mentioned that the headset’s frames would have a LIDAR scanner in the right temple. The scanner will use laser light to detect the user’s environment. The glass headset was expected to be sleeker and lighter. It was one of the tech fanatic’s expectations from Apple that is yet to hit the market.

People’s interest in AR is growing tremendously. Game developers believe that AR will be the dominant immersive technology in the next five years. The Game Developer Conference’s annual survey for the year 2020 that gathered responses from around 4000 game developers found that 32% of them think that AR is changing the face of the game.

Apple’s move has stirred many people. There are also speculations that Apple’s motive in buying Spaces could be with the intention not to let go of Spaces to another competitor. Spaces gained a high level of recognition for its zoom make-up, and any tech giant would be more than interested in buying it. However, Apple obtaining Spaces might open the door for a whole new level of collaboration technologies.