What is Apple planning next? That’s a question on everyone’s mind, as the company has a huge pile of cash but seemingly no direction beyond the upcoming iPhone 8. But a workplace incident report accidentally mailed to the whole company might be hinting at where Apple is heading.
Gizmodo was leaked the report after it was sent to the whole company, and by and large, it’s prosaic workplace injury stuff — people walking into doors, people burning themselves on their lunch, and so on. But two reports in the document discuss eye injury from a prototype unit using lasers, which is attention-getting because Apple products don’t generally come with lasers.
Why would Apple be fiddling with lasers near somebody’s eyeball? Apple has shown a lot of interest lately in 3D cameras. which the iPhone 8 will almost surely ship with, and augmented reality. iPhone 8 rumors tend to mention augmented reality features and similar tools being all over the iPhone; a 3D camera would allow better implementation of these features. And Apple CEO Tim Cook has talked up augmented reality, especially recently, as the next big idea. Apple is notably secretive and its projects can go through a lot of changes, but considering what we’re hearing about the iPhone 8, don’t be surprised if an augmented reality headset is Apple’s next big thing.