Apple has named its first head of marketing related to the burgeoning field of augmented reality. Frank Casanova, a company veteran who has been at the Cupertino firm since 1988, has become its new chief of worldwide product marketing for augmented reality.
His official title is Senior Director, Worldwide Product Marketing.
Casanova apparently moved from leading iPhone marketing for wireless carriers into the new augmented reality role last month, as per his LinkedIn profile. His responsibilities include “all aspects of Product Marketing for Apple’s Augmented Reality initiative.”
Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg:
Casanova has worked at Apple for about 30 years and was key in launching the original iPhone, striking deals with carriers to promote the handset and developing older Apple products like the QuickTime video player.
Although a tad mouthful, the title signifies the rising importance of augmented reality across the Apple ecosystem. Michael Gartenberg, former senior director of marketing at Apple:
There’s now a name and face on Apple’s augmented reality efforts and a person with a track record of working on advanced technology projects at Apple. Frank is the ideal person to lead Apple’s efforts in augmented reality.
While augmented reality currently is mostly about games, furniture-placing apps, virtual rulers and a couple of other promising app categories, Apple’s been consistently upgrading camera hardware in the past three years with augmented reality advances in mind.
This began with the September 2017 release of iPhone 7, Apple’s first dual-lens camera that was specifically calibrated for accurate and reliable tracking in augmented reality applications.
The cameras, sensors and chips in iOS devices have since gotten a lot better. In 2019, iPhones could adopt laser rear cameras that might be capable of recreating your world in 3D.
As Bloomberg reported last year, the Cupertino giant is believed to be working on a standalone augmented reality headset with 8K displays and custom chips that might release in 2020.
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