Apple Already Has a Big Advantage in AR, Apple Glasses Aren't Coming Anytime Soon: Cook

Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook believes his company is uniquely positioned to lead in the augmented reality space as it has a weapon that its rivals don't.

In a wide-ranging interview published this week, Cook talked about ARKit, the recently introduced framework for iOS to facilitate augmented reality technologies, and how the company sees this nascent stage, which its rivals Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are also increasingly eyeing.

"The way that you get lots of great ideas is for us to do the heavy lifting of the complexity of locational things and software, and put those in the operating system," Cook said. "And then you have all the developers that are able to put their energy into their passion."

As per Cook, which only recently entered the AR market, the company is already in good shape. Cook thinks that because Apple is uniquely positioned to lead the charge in the industry as its competitors don't have full control on "hardware and software."

Cook also believes the company's efforts could prove to be just as dramatic as the App Store has been to the developer ecosystem. With the App Store, which the company launched after unveiling the first iPhone, Apple created hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

He also talked about the AR glasses, which the company has been reportedly working on. Cook didn't dismiss that his company is looking into it, but he did mention that we are a few years away from the supposed Apple Glasses.

"But today I can tell you the technology itself doesn't exist to do that in a quality way. The display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face - there's huge challenges with that. The field of view, the quality of the display itself, it's not there yet," he said.

Google has already tried its hand with Google Glasses, but it failed to gain much traction. Does Apple care about the competition or being first with a product? Hear from the man himself. "We don't give a rat's [ass] about being first, we want to be the best, and give people a great experience," he said. "But now anything you would see on the market any time soon would not be something any of us would be satisfied with. Nor do I think the vast majority of people would be satisfied."