Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company sees a “lot of potential†in metaverse and is investing in the technology. Cook was speaking at the company’s earning for the first quarter of 2022.
When Cook was asked about metaverse, he said, as quoted by AppleInsider, “we’re a company in the business of innovation and we have over 14,000 AR apps in the App Storeâ€. It should be noted that Cook never used the word “metaverse†in his answer. Cook also highlighted that Apple has increased its expense on Research and Development. “There’s quite a bit of investment going into things that aren’t on the market at this point,†Cook noted to investors and analysts.
For the uninitiated, the metaverse is being envisioned as a new world order really, where your services could be offered virtually in exchange for other virtual assets, or Cryptocurrencies. The way to look at it is that your existence will be enmeshed with the digital world in a much deeper, complex way. On one level it does sound dystopic and most examples in popular fiction where the virtual and physical world have merged live up to that image.
It seems that Apple has been pushing for mainstream AR experiences, Cook noted the wide use of Apple’s ARKit framework among iOS apps. Apple has been pushing for mainstream AR experiences since its addition of LiDAR to the iPad Pro and iPhone 12 Pro.
Meanwhile, Apple is also rumored to be working on a VR headset that could release in 2022. This headset would allow people to interact with the metaverse.
Earlier, in November 2020, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that he is a crypto investor and holds digital coins. Cook was answering Andrew Ross Sorkin, who was hosting the New York Times’ two-day online summit. The Apple CEO shared his thoughts on the hot topic of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. However, Cook dismissed the idea of accepting cryptocurrency via Apple Pay anytime soon. He explained that Apple is “looking at†crypto, but has no plans to launch such functionality in Apple Pay.
