iPhone 8 Rumors: Next Generation iPhone To Get Augmented Reality Technology?

While it is going to be at least seven more months until Apple unveils its next-generation iPhone, every now and then, rumors do keep popping up about the features this new iPhone will come with. Considering the fact that 2017 would be the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, many experts believe that the next iPhone might turn out to be something very revolutionary. According to BGR, There is also chatter about this iPhone being called the iPhone X, instead of the iPhone 7s or the iPhone 8. For this article, we will refer to it as the next generation iPhone — the iPhone 8 — just to make things easier to understand. In the most recent rumor, we have reports coming about the possibility of the iPhone 8 getting a bunch of augmented reality features.

iPhone 8 Reported To Feature powerful Next-Gen Augmented Reality Tech https://t.co/PqmFegx2ct pic.twitter.com/oDe5TwzzrN

— Retraceable Fibonacci??? (@manlikelaxx) February 13, 2017

According to a recent report by Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski, there is a good chance that Apple is seriously looking to incorporate several augmented reality features on the iPhone 8. This is what Simona was quoted in a recent note.

“The inclusion of 3D sensing functionality is increasingly likely, which could enable a robust augmented reality (AR) feature set that we believe will be a key differentiator for the 10-year anniversary iPhone.”

Jankowski has also talked about Apple’s recent relationship with a 3D sensor technology company, Lumentum, which was recently reported by Fast Company. Notably, it is also known that Apple has been working with Lumentum for a long period of time to bring 3D-sensing technology to its iPhones. While there is still no clarity on how this technology would find a practical application on the iPhone 8, it is likely that it would be used as an additional method to enhance facial recognition technology. There is also talk about the technology being used to endow the iPhone camera with a better depth sensing ability. What makes Jankowski’s claims more trustworthy is the fact that Lumentum, in its most recent earnings call, revealed that they had shipped their “first revenue into what we believe could be a high volume mobile device application.”

As for augmented reality, we still do not know the extent to which augmented reality features would be used on the iOS platform. In its most basic form, the feature could be used to do simple things like pointing the iPhone at an object and the phone displaying interesting bits of information regarding the thing that is being pointed at. Basically, your phone might just get the ability to “know” what it is being pointed at. There are also talks about more complex applications — including the ability to identify and manipulate faces. We have already seen that the Android platform treading carefully as far as augmented reality goes with its initial batch of Tango-enabled smartphones (mostly from Lenovo).

In fact, Lenovo already sells a bunch of Tango certified, augmented reality enabled Android smartphones.

It remains to be seen how different or revolutionary Apple’s implementation of the same tech would be. If we are to make guesses, we need to listen to what popular Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said about Apple’s much-rumored AR platform. According to Kuo, he expects Apple’s AR implementation to be at least three-to-four years ahead of the competition. In fact, he has also gone on record and said that Apple could release a pair of augmented reality-enabled smart glasses by 2018. The possibility of Apple going all out with AR-enabled products is also enhanced by CEO Tim Cook’s recent talks about the technology. He was recently quoted saying that he is a”huge fan of augmented reality technology.”

“AR allows individuals to be present in the world but hopefully allows an improvement on what’s happening presently.”

Do you think the upcoming Apple iPhone 8 (or the iPhone X) would indeed get a lot of augmented reality features?

[Featured Image By Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP Images]