Apple Marketing Lead Greg Joswiak Talks ARKit in New Interview

Apple's vice president of product marketing Greg Joswiak this week sat down for an interview with The Australian, where he spoke about the company's augmented reality efforts, including ARKit and the response that its gotten from developers so far.

Enthusiasm about ARKit has been "unbelievable" says Joswiak, who went on to describe some of the things developers have built so far, including virtual tape measures that can accurately measure real-world objects. "It's absolutely incredible what people are doing in so little time," he said. Joswiak declined to speak about Apple's future AR plans, but said the company is going to "start at zero" with the iPhone and the iPad.

Apple was not talking about any plan to build AR glasses or a headset, but would instead promote its use on the iPhone and iPad, he said. "I think there is a gigantic runway that we have here with the iPhone and the iPad. The fact we have a billion of these devices out there is quite an opportunity for developers.

"Who knows the kind of things coming down the road, but whatever those things are, we're going to start at zero."

Joswiak also spoke about HomeKit, where he said he expects "plenty" of compatible HomeKit devices to be in homes in Australia before the HomePod speaker launches in December, and he highlighted both the new Siri voices in iOS 11 and Apple's work on machine learning. Apple has been using machine learning techniques since 2007, when the original iPhone launched. "We used machine learning to learn what you typed back in 2007," he said.

Machine learning, ARKit, and artificial intelligence play a major role in iOS 11. With ARKit, developers are able to quickly and easily build augmented reality experiences into their apps and games. When it launches this fall, ARKit will be the largest AR platform in the world, thanks to the myriad iPhones and iPads that are out on the market.

Related Forum: iOS 11

Popular Stories

iphone 16 pro ghost hand

5 Reasons to Skip This Year's iPhone 17 Pro

Thursday July 10, 2025 4:54 am PDT by
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 series in two months, and the iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to get a new design for the rear casing and the camera area. But more significant changes to the lineup are not expected until next year, when the iPhone 18 models arrive. If you're thinking of trading in your iPhone for this year's latest, consider the following features rumored to be coming...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

Apple Says iPhone Driver's Licenses Will Expand to These 8 U.S. States

Tuesday July 8, 2025 11:26 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states, Puerto Rico,...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro to Reverse iPhone X Design Decision

Monday July 7, 2025 9:46 am PDT by
Since the iPhone X in 2017, all of Apple's highest-end iPhone models have featured either stainless steel or titanium frames, but it has now been rumored that this design decision will be coming to an end with the iPhone 17 Pro models later this year. In a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo today, the account Instant Digital said that the iPhone 17 Pro models will have an aluminum...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

Leaker Reveals Amount of RAM in iPhone 17 Through iPhone 17 Pro Max

Wednesday July 9, 2025 8:08 am PDT by
Three out of four iPhone 17 models will feature more RAM than the equivalent iPhone 16 models, according to a new leak that aligns with previous rumors. The all-new iPhone 17 Air, the iPhone 17 Pro, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max will each be equipped with 12GB of RAM, according to Fixed Focus Digital, an account with more than two million followers on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The...
apple account card feature

Apple Account Card Expanding to More Countries

Tuesday July 8, 2025 7:34 pm PDT by
Apple is expanding the ability to add an Apple Account Card to the Wallet app to more countries, according to backend Apple Pay changes. With iOS 15.5, Apple updated the Wallet app to allow users to add an Apple Account Card, which displays the Apple credit balance associated with an Apple ID. If you receive an Apple gift card, for example, it is added to an Apple Account that is also...
macbook pro blue green

M5 MacBook Pro No Longer Coming in 2025

Thursday July 10, 2025 12:38 pm PDT by
Apple does not plan to refresh any Macs with updated M5 chips in 2025, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models are now planned for the first half of 2026. Gurman previously said that Apple would debut the M5 MacBook Pro models in late 2025, but his newest report suggests that Apple is "considering" pushing them back to 2026. Apple is now said to be...
iOS 26 Feature

Everything New in iOS 26 Beta 3

Monday July 7, 2025 1:20 pm PDT by
Apple is continuing to refine and update iOS 26, and beta three features smaller changes than we saw in beta 2, plus further tweaks to the Liquid Glass design. Apple is gearing up for the next phase of beta testing, and the company has promised that a public beta is set to come out in July. Transparency In some apps like Apple Music, Podcasts, and the App Store, Apple has toned down the...
iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive These Five Perks

Wednesday July 9, 2025 9:20 am PDT by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, did you know that Apple offers you five perks beyond the extra storage space, at no additional cost? Here are the perks included with all iCloud+ plans:Private Relay keeps your Safari browsing history entirely private from network providers, websites, and even Apple. Hide My Email generates unique, random email addresses whenever needed. Hom...

Top Rated Comments

Zirel Avatar
105 months ago
While VR is easy, just dump a faster, more powerful graphics card, AR is very complicated, because you can’t solve it just by catching the silicon drift.

Apple has, by far, the best AR until now, and it has it ready to be literally in the hands of 100’s of millions of consumers right when iOS 11 launches. They have won the game, and Google and Microsoft have a lot to catch up...

Also, they own PrimeSense, the real engineers behind "Google" Project Tango...
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
44267547 Avatar
105 months ago
I think AR-Kit is interesting in its infancy with mapping objects on to a surface. But that's just the start and how it will Expand with iOS devices. Once it expands more into the gaming era With the iPad or how someone could potentially stage their home with virtual furniture to see what it would resemble Before purchasing is clever.

I can only imagine how this will expand in its capabilities in two/three years time from where it is now.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zapm Avatar
105 months ago
So instead of being hands free, moving your head around in free-space.
Then with the aid of hand controllers being able to interact with virtual objects.

You have to stand there, looking at a small screen, whilst using both hands to hold it in front of your face.

You sure Apple's version is really the future?
Pair them with a set of smart glasses. Who knows, Apple may eventually come out with their own. The problem with VR is that you become completely blind to the actual world.

Check out this article: http://www.pcmag.com/article/347242/ar-vs-vr-whats-the-difference
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FactVsOpinion Avatar
105 months ago
So instead of being hands free, moving your head around in free-space.
Then with the aid of hand controllers being able to interact with virtual objects.

You have to stand there, looking at a small screen, whilst using both hands to hold it in front of your face.

You sure Apple's version is really the future?
That's not "apple's version" of AR in its limit. That's just AR on a phone. The software technology Apple developed would just as easily work in a headset or other device; and work better than competitors.

In addition, nearly the whole world has a phone already and uses it in way that could be meaningfully enhanced with AR, so Apple's approach is the right first step.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ShinySteelRobot Avatar
105 months ago
So instead of being hands free, moving your head around in free-space.
Then with the aid of hand controllers being able to interact with virtual objects.

You have to stand there, looking at a small screen, whilst using both hands to hold it in front of your face.

You sure Apple's version is really the future?
You've confused Virtual Reality with Augmented Reality. Totally different tech.
[doublepost=1498780919][/doublepost]
I wonder how good the ARKit is going to perform on those "billion" devices out there. Are we really expecting backwards compatibility all the way? How neutered will ARKit be on even one year old devices when iOS 11 launches?
Apple wants to ensure ARKit is a great experience on all supported devices. To that end, ARKit is fully enabled on everything back to iPhone 6S and other devices from that era (basically if your device runs on an A9 chip, you're good to go).

Older devices running on A8 chips and before won't support ARKit, so I can't run it on my iPhone 6 Plus.

Of course, newer devices will probably run ARKit more smoothly, but AFAIK Apple doesn't "neuter" ARKit in any way.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FrenchRoasted Avatar
105 months ago
Waiting to see pictures of people running around with an iPad strapped to their heads.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)