Apple will launch AR glasses and a car in the next few years, analyst says

Earlier this month, Apple became the world’s first trillion-dollar company. So how does it become the world’s first two trillion-dollar company? Respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has some ideas, which he shared in a TF Securities research note earlier this week.

Analysts naturally have a patchy reputation, but Kuo has a stronger track record than most, so people tend to take notice when he makes a forecast. And in the note, seen by Business Insider, he predicts the iPhone X maker’s growth to come from three distinct areas: services, augmented reality (AR) and motoring.

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Apple has already toyed with AR with its ARKit platform, but Kuo is predicting that this will prove to be just the beginning, with smartglasses expected to arrive within the next two years.

“We predict that AR is the next-generation revolutionary UI; we therefore think that AR does not need any killer applications given it is a killer application already,” he wrote. “We expect Apple will redefine the UIs of existing products by offering an AR experience created by the AR glass, which will likely be launched in 2020.”

Although smartglasses have failed to set the market alight due to their clunky design and limited functionality, if there’s any company that can make an unusual design fashionable, it’s Apple. Just witness how quickly the notch has gone from being an eyesore to a flagship Android calling card.

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Then there’s the long-rumoured Apple Car. Project Titan, as it’s internally known, has been lying dormant for some time, but a recent hire suggests it’s back on the agenda, and Kuo believes we’ll see an Apple Car launch between 2023 and 2025.

Finally, there’s services, which Apple internally forecasts will be contributing $14 billion to the firm by 2020. For Kuo though, this doesn’t necessarily just mean Apple Pay, Apple Music, AppleCare and the like – it could be services integrated into the Apple Car. There’s even room for the company to enter the car financing market, he posited, which would certainly help the swelling bottom line.

All of which isn’t to suggest that the core business of iPhones, MacBooks and iPads is going away anytime soon. But if any company has the resources to head in a bunch of new directions, it’s certainly Apple.

Does this forecast ring true for you? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter @TrustedReviews.