Profound Emerging Technology

Microvision has the display piece. (meaning, Microvision has the best near eye display.... I've tried everything I could get my hands on at CES three times, nothing is comparable to the old thing that Microvision had.)

Things done in "AR" are eventually going to be delivered on near eye displays. Microvision's near eye display is the best.

Financial Times
Apple ARKit

Apple CEO Tim Cook took in a demonstration of Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify’s augmented reality capabilities during a visit to Toronto, while touting his company’s investment in the emerging technology.

“I believe that AR is the most profound technology of the future,” Cook said in an interview. “It amplifies human performance. It amplifies humans, not substitutes, and doesn’t isolate. I’m a huge believer in it.”

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Shopify chief executive Tobias Lütke said that his company is planning to use Apple’s ARKit to become the largest AR-enabled ecommerce platform. The goal is to offer small businesses the latest in technology, something that is usually reserved for large, well-resourced companies.

“What Shopify then can do is that we know this is going to happen, we can establish some patterns, and we can get this productized to the point where it’s going to be a single clink for every store,”Lütke said.

“The internet ought to be a force for democratization, but yet we see the story over and over again that it actually is placed into the hands of the companies already at scale and often one of the forces that puts the smaller businesses out of business.”

Cook’s visit coincides with an announcement that Apple’s delayed entry into the smart speaker market will be available for sale in parts of the world starting Feb. 9. The HomePod is available for pre-order in the United States, Britain and Australia on Friday. No word yet on when it will arrive in Canada.

Apple has allowed Amazon and Google a head start when it comes to smart speakers, which has led some industry watchers to warn that it’ll be an uphill battle to catch up.

“They already are late to the game and know that, so they want to put their best foot forward at this point,” said Manish Nargas, a consumer and moble research analyst for IDC Canada.