FaceTime
Can we expect to see FaceTime + Markup from Apple?
In this video, I imagine how that could work across our everyday lives from assisting family members with technical challenges to shopping trips.
In 2017, PTC introduced something similar with Vuforia Chalk, a video conferencing app that enabled you to draw on the real world with Augmented Reality (AR). Vuforia Chalk used Apple’s ARKit, allowing digital graphics to remain persistent where they were drawn. The app initially launched for wide consumer use on iPhone and iPad, but quickly pivoted to enterprise.
“Mainstream augmented reality is at the beginning of a strong positive inflection point, and Vuforia Chalk is a great example of how AR can transition from enterprise-only to use in everyday life,” read a press release announcing the launch back in October 2017, quoting Eric Abbruzzese from ABI Research. “We see Vuforia Chalk as a fundamentally disruptive form of remote communication that will be well received across multiple sectors and for multiple use cases.”
Today, Vuforia Chalk remains focused on manufacturing and industrial enterprise organizations. AR is leveraged within the app to enable offsite and on-site employees and customers to collaborate in the operation, maintenance, and repair of a multitude of products.
With COVID-19 lockdowns, sheltering in place, and being physically distant from loved ones, the opportunity exists amid the pandemic for a mainstream solution, which could have a profound impact on remotely supporting everyday life activities.
FaceTime + Markup could be that mass consumer AR application.
One use is guided shopping, ranging from grocery trips to personalized one-on-one digital concierge services, as we’ve seen offered by companies like Lululemon, which I wrote about here. (For more on how AR is redefining retail in the pandemic, read my recent Harvard Business Review article here.)
My recent article in Harvard Business Review, How AR Is Redefining Retail in the Pandemic, October 7, 2020.
In a Retail Prophet ‘Ask Me Anything’ webinar last month, Ian Rogers, Chief Digital Officer at LVMH shared his thoughts on how digital will transform retail. “We need to have broadcast capabilities because not everyone can come to that store,” he said. “How do we invite people in that can’t be there?” Rogers commented on current approaches such as live-streaming, Instagram, and WeChat. “That thing that looks like Louis Vuitton plus FaceTime, that’s still coming and that’s going to be incredible.” I agree and it’s really not that far away.
I also recently wrote about Amazon’s new live-streaming platform Amazon Explore offering virtual shopping experiences. In a video introducing the service, we see a woman browsing a store remotely, hosted by a shop keeper over live video. The woman at home is looking to purchase a new scarf. We hear her guiding the shop keeper’s camera, “A little bit more down to the right. Yah. How much is that?” Which begs the question, will Amazon Explore introduce visual annotation and mark-up features atop their live-stream platform to deliver a better shared experience?
With more of our lives and daily interactions becoming virtual in these unprecedented times, we’ll need more robust and commonplace tools to clearly communicate over a shared reality. FaceTime + Markup could be that first step.
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