We know that Microsoft is looking into augmented reality with the HoloLens, an interesting direction given that many companies appear to be focusing on virtual reality at the moment. However could Apple be interested in heading down the augmented reality route as well? In the past Apple has shown some interest via patents, and it seems that their latest hire is pretty telling.
The Cupertino company has apparently hired an individual by the name of Nick Thompson. Thompson used to be an engineer for the HoloLens project back at Microsoft, and according to his LinkedIn profile, it seems that he is indeed working at Apple as a CPU software and audio engineer.
However according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, “Based on recent acquisitions of augmented reality companies, hiring of a key Microsoft HoloLens employee, and conversations with industry contacts within the virtual and augmented reality spaces, we believe Apple has a team exploring the AR space.”
Munster is referring to Apple’s acquisition of Metaio which took place earlier this year, which interestingly came a couple of months after it was rumored that Apple could be interested in the technology. That being said we suppose it does not come as a surprise to learn that Apple is interested in all kinds of technology, but whether or not their efforts will be commercialized remains to be seen.
Filed in . Read more about Augmented Reality (AR), Hololens and Microsoft.