Apple CEO Tim Cook believes augmented reality is 'a big idea like the smartphone

(BusinessInsider.com) -  Nobody outside of Apple knows what its next big product is.

But Apple CEO Tim Cook continues to drop hints that the company is investing and sees huge potential in augmented reality.

That's what techies call the technology that integrates computer graphics and the internet with the real world to let you see virtual objects in real environments. The end game of this technology is a pair of smart glasses, although current applications like Pokémon Go mostly use smartphones.

Cook compared AR to the smartphone in an interview with The Independent's David Phelan published on Friday:

"I regard it as a big idea like the smartphone. The smartphone is for everyone. We don't have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country or vertical market; it's for everyone. I think AR is that big. It's huge. I get excited because of the things that could be done that could improve a lot of lives and be entertaining."

But Cook also threw cold water on the idea that Apple is preparing a specific AR product like the smart glasses that have been recently rumored.

"I view AR like I view the silicon here in my iPhone," he said. "It's not a product per se — it's a core technology."

This could mean that Apple would include AR technology in some of its apps, such as the camera app, and its underlying technology. Apple has purchased several AR startups in the past few years.

"This is something you know it's coming," Loup Ventures founder Gene Munster previously told Business Insider. "The only other times they've talked like this is before the iPhone came out, they started to indicate they could do something in the phone market. Before the Apple Watch came out they talked about wearables and the wrist being a better option."

It's not the first time Cook has spoken at length about the potential he sees in AR. At an appearance in October, he laid out why he thinks is a superior bet to other immersive technologies like virtual reality, and said a "significant portion" of people around the world would "have AR experiences every day."

"AR is going to take a while because there are some really hard technology challenges there," Cook said in October. "But it will happen, it will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, how we ever lived without it. Like we wonder how we lived without our phone today." (ontinueReading..

Chinese Media Warns Beijing Of India's Takeover As World's Manufacturing Hub

Beijing: Apple expanding its business in India could have other tech giants follow suit and threaten China's position as the manufacturing powerhouse, Chinese state media said today, adding that Beijing will have to upgrade its manufacturing to further attract offshore production.
"Apple's possible supply chain transfer to the South Asian country adds further pressure on China as its domestic manufacturers show a growing interest in offshore production to low-cost countries," the state-run Global Times said.

Even as US President-elect Donald Trump pledges to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US, China's competitors seem to be further expanding their businesses offshore. An Apple manufacturing partner is working to build an assembly facility in India, the article said.
"Whether India is ready to embrace the supply chain transfer and replicate China's success as a manufacturing powerhouse is another story. But the evolving landscape highlights the need for China to design a strategy to retain manufacturing jobs and upgrade its manufacturing industry to maintain competitiveness," it said.

Apple's three major assemblers - Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp. and Wistron Corp - are all Taiwanese and any one could be willing to set up India operations.

Despite Apple's bumpy journey to expand operations in India when its application to open stores was rejected because at least 30 percent of mobile parts production was not localised, an opportunity seems to have opened up as senior Indian officials have softened their stance, it said.

Apple's three major assemblers - Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp. and Wistron Corp - are all Taiwanese and any one could be willing to set up India operations.

If Apple decides to set up assembly facilities in India, more global tech giants may follow suit and China is likely to see a further transfer of the supply chain given India's abundant supply of working-age labourers and low labour costs.

"And it won't be difficult for Wistron to make a large investment or generate jobs. Apple's partner Foxconn has displayed the potential for job creation in India," it said, adding,

The article said that China can't afford to lose manufacturing jobs while it has not made a major breakthrough in upgrading its industry. It also warned Beijing of Donald Trump's plans to draw manufacturing jobs back to the US.

It however said China's skilled labour was its edge over India.
"Industrial competition between China and India comes down to the labour force, where costs and the level of skills are two major factors that influence business decisions. Although China has an edge having nurtured skilled workers over past decades, a majority of Indian states have an absolute labour cost advantage over China," it said.

Advising China to scale up its manufacturing, the article said it should upgrade through restructuring and reorganisation of technologies, talents, capital and other resources. (Source)

Russia Antitrust Body Opens Case Into Possible Price-Fixing Against Apple

(WashingtonPost) MOSCOW-—Russia’s federal antitrust body has opened a case into possible price-fixing by Apple Inc. and some Russian smartphone retailers, making the Cupertino, Calif., company the latest U.S. tech giant to draw attention from Russian regulators.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said it was investigating a claim that Apple and 16 resellers colluded to fix prices of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus on the local market starting in October 2015. The agency said prices had been set at the same level across a majority of retailers and held there for some time.

“The FAS believes that such a coincidence could be the result of a coordination of the pricing of Russian resellers by the Apple group of companies,” the agency said in a statement on its website.

An Apple spokesman said the company had no immediate comment.

Andrei Filimonov, the head of the FAS’s anti-cartel unit, told Interfax news agency in February that the unit had begun looking into allegations of iPhone price-fixing. He said that the companies in question could be fined up to 15% of iPhone sales revenue.

U.S. businesses in Russia have come under increased scrutiny as relations between the U.S. and Russia deteriorated to their worst level since the end of the Cold War. The U.S. and European Union slapped sanctions on Russia following its annexation of Crimea in March 2014; Russia responded with an embargo on some food products.

In August 2014, Russia’s state consumer regulator temporarily shut down 12 McDonald’s restaurants and inspected 100 more outlets over alleged sanitary violations. The standoff later subsided, and in 2015 McDonald’s Corp. announced that it would continue to expand in Russia.

Technology companies have been a particular target of recent legislation, as the Russian government seeks to assert control over Russia’s largely unfettered internet.

A 2014 law required that foreign internet companies, such as Google Inc., Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., to store personal data of users from Russia within the country’s borders, but Western companies delayed full compliance and enforcement deadlines were repeatedly pushed back.

Earlier this year, a Russian court upheld an FAS decision against Google. The court said Google had used the dominant position of its Android mobile-phone operating system to effectively force retailers to preload the company’s apps and services on its devices.

Sales of smartphones in Russia fell 7% in 2015, according to research firm GfK, as Russia’s economy contracted 3.7% amid Western sanctions and a sharp drop in the price for crude oil, its main export. Retailer Svyaznoy said its research showed iPhone sales accounted for 27% of sales revenue for resellers, more than any other smartphone maker.

Dmitry Marinichev, Russia’s government-appointed internet ombudsman, criticized the decision to open a case. Mr. Marinichev, whose position allows for sector oversight but has no enforcement powers, said retailers could be punished for colluding on setting prices but Apple couldn’t.

“It won’t be possible to punish Apple,” he said in recorded comments posted on the news portal LifeNews. “It’s a commercial company and therefore it works on the free market and defines for itself what the pricing level should be for a given market.” (Source)