Tim Cook Thinks Augmented Reality Will Change the Fashion Industry

In the midst of continuing hype around the unveiling of the iPhone X, Apple CEO Tim Cook found the time to sit down with Vogue and discuss how technological advancements — particularly augmented reality (AR) — could change the fashion industry. In the interview, Cook suggests using the technology to identify what someone else is wearing, or to get a full 360-degree view of a piece during a fashion show. He also adds that AR technology could change every single industry: “I don’t think there is any sector or industry that will be untouched by AR.” You can read some key excerpts from the conversation between Tim Cook and Vogue below.

On AR at fashion shows:

“If you think about a runway show in the fashion world, that’s a great application of AR because some of these, you want to see the dress all the way around, you do not want to just see the front.”

On using AR to identify what other people are wearing:

“We don’t have a plan to collect all of these objects, but I know companies who are working on that for their products. If you think about companies that offer a fair number of shoes, and [if a customer] sees a shoe and goes I want that one, you just want to point and [buy]. That will be a part of the shopping experience of the future, it absolutely will.”

On creating Apple glasses:

“There are rumours and gossip about companies working on that, and we obviously don’t talk about what we work on. But today I can tell you that the technology itself doesn’t exist to do that in a quality way. We don’t give a rats about being first, we want to be best in creating people’s experiences. Something that you would see out in the market any time soon would not be something that any of us would be satisfied with.”

To read the full Tim Cook interview, head over to the Vogue website. In related news, Apple has also recently unveiled the “Steve Jobs Theatre” at its Apple Park campus in California.