Link: After working on the Vision Pro, this AR veteran is going back to phones

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Mark Drummond, during his time at Apple working on Vision Pro, had an epiphany that diverged from the company's narrative. Managing the Character Intelligence Team, they developed a demo with Jon Favreau that allowed users to interact with dinosaurs through the Vision Pro.

Before the Vision Pro was ready, Drummond's team used iPhones and iPads for demos, finding these devices provided a surprisingly good experience. This realization led Drummond to believe that mobile devices might actually be superior for this type of mixed reality content.

Drummond observed that headsets can alienate users from their surroundings, making shared experiences difficult whereas mobile devices allow for easier interaction. After leaving Apple in 2023, he pursued augmented reality storytelling on mobile devices, developing an iPhone AR app called Pixi.

Pixi offers users a novel way to send AR-powered messages, incorporating interactive characters and personalized scenarios that come alive in the real-world environment of the recipient.

While smart glasses and AR headsets evolve, Drummond suggests that smartphones will remain central to interactive AR experiences due to their growing computing power. Emphasizing the instant accessibility and the existing computing power of smartphones, he predicts that phones will continue to be the dominant platform for AR development.

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