Apple: The next 50 years -

Neural implants, AI agents, facial devices, robots: where exactly will Apple go in the coming years?I'll take a few guesses with a futurist friend.

Apple was born in 1976 and is celebrating its 50th anniversary.I know this feeling.When I turned 50, not long ago, I looked at the sky for a while, started new projects, and did fun things with my friends.

But what then?Me, I'm still working on it.The future is equally uncertain for Apple.Even if you are one of the largest companies and a dominant maker of computers, phones and wearables, what is the trajectory in a world overcome by disruptive artificial intelligence and facing economic headwinds and climate change?

Over the past 20 years, I've tested many of Apple's new products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch, from AirPods to the Vision Pro.I grew up with Apple technology: as a child, we had an Apple IIC and an Apple dot-matrix printer attached to it in our home computer room.

As I sit here today typing away on a MacBook Air with Vision Pro strapped to my face, moving my Mac's virtual display into my room, I have plenty of pet theories about what's next, far beyond the foldable iPhone and updated Siri expected this year.

Fifty years is an impossible time to think about.And yet, in 1976, early forms of the Internet and computers existed.And back in 2009, when I started at, I thought laptops would disappear in favor of phones and tablets.I was half right.Laptops are still there.

So what's next?Will Apple become a company that respects its nostalgic brands?Will it become a company that focuses on the advanced design of the rich?Will it focus on elderly care?Can Apple go wild on new products?Will he be making jewelry, cars and robots in 2076?Do you grow processed food?Will Apple products live on in my children?their heads?

For help, I called Annie Hardy, global AI architect and futurist at networking giant Cisco Systems, whom I met a few weeks ago at SXSW.I asked his opinion on what's next for Apple, while expressing my own thoughts.

"We don't just work and look at a future," Hardy says of his work as a futurist. "We consider alternative futures. A futurist looks at what might happen and tries to prepare people for it."

In this sense, looking forward is like being Doctor Strange, exploring all the tangled threads of the multiverse.But these are the trends we see for Hardy and Apple.

A brand for everyone or the rich?

I often think about who can afford the technology and where Apple fits into that model.On the one hand, there's the affordable $599 MacBook Neo.On the other hand, there's the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro and the $549 AirPods Max.The gap between the richest and the poorest in our economy is widening.

"When we think about the future of technology as a divide between the haves and the have-nots, and when we think about this company [Apple] that's creating all these amazing things, with the price of computing and rare minerals, the question is: Who does Apple serve?"says Hardy.

It can be in many ways, Hardy suggests, and I can see the pull and the push now.A lot of people have iPhones and AirPods, or even iPods.However, not everyone can afford everything.High design at a high price has been Apple's specialty for years, but it also makes design accessible.

I use a lot of XR (VR and AR) headset technology, so obviously I think about it a lot.Most people still don't wear headsets, Meta's VR plans seem to be on the wane, and Apple's technologically impressive Vision Pro looks like a market failure.Even the man who coined the word metaverse, author and former Magic Lip employee Neil Stephenson, doesn't think the future of technology is in our faces anymore.

I think he is wrong.While we don't all wear technology on our faces, some of us will.More importantly, the spatial awareness of VR/AR headsets is the starting point for a major effort now for AI to map and learn about the entire physical world, to help robots, drones, self-driving cars and other AI systems function in everyday life.The “global model” effort is still ongoing, and many companies are following suit.

If the models of the world eventually work well with AI, it will not only benefit from robots.AR glasses will be too.

While we may not all be wearing AR glasses in 10 years, I think it will happen in 50 years.Or at least highly assistive sensory wearables.Apple could emphasize more private handling of sensitive personal data and promote accessibility features such as hearing, vision, and even health monitors.Imagine being able to fly or create anything in the world, from people's conversations to wall art and their memories.Everything is where it was before.Or just get tips while doing almost anything, like getting instructions or viewing material overlays.

Apple learned a lot from Vision Pro, Hardy said."Apple isn't made of wearables. Apple isn't made of glasses. Apple isn't made of space. But Apple will wait until it issues the absolute right to enter space."

The future of cameras to scan your life

Part of Apple's spatial computing bias lies in its camera technology.Apple is already the default company for millions of cameras.But the leap into computational photography and eventual realism is already underway.An emerging technology called Gaussian splatting can already create 3D images of objects or places: Apple's Persona avatars use it.So do Google Maps and the room-scanning app Meta Hyperscape.Capture.I even gave it an award for best split last month.Extend it by decades and add video;the camera should record everything holographically.Apple can actually record memories like a time machine.

3D scanning is now a strange process, still not common and easy to use.If it's instant and managed simply by Apple's camera apps, it could be the future of photography.Anything could be captured and recreated from any angle, or "walked in" later.Important documents, objects and memories could be preserved.Apple Memories becomes a world archive.Place these cameras in certain places in your home or on glasses and you can suddenly find yourself remembering everything

What will stay with us?Phone (and computer)

Even if the spatial calculation is going faster, I think the phone will remain the most important.In that sense, Stephenson is right.I think they are not the same, they can be similar or even visible when we use them, but Apple's control over the phone is a big part of where we are going.

We don't have modems in our heads, and I don't think we'll ever have implants (or ever need them, even if we do).But phones are our personal and computing hubs.And those will be the devices that our wearables can securely connect to.

Phones have already changed radically in the last 50 years, and even in the last 15 years that I've been testing them: they're an extension of our identity, an extension of our consciousness, almost a part of our body.I'm sorry it just keeps going like this.And in new forms: foldable, dockable phones that extend into the environment around us and endless screens, both real and virtual.

Apple can find a way to make it all smoother and more streamlined.It will undoubtedly expand its services and premium add-ons to lock in the experience.

"I think there's a chance in the next 50 years that if they don't have implantable devices themselves, they'll be able to use the App Store to connect to apps that integrate with implantable devices," Hardy says."So Apple will be the enabler of technological capabilities that connect brain computer interfaces, invasive or non-invasive, with the power of the phone."

I'm sure non-phone computers will continue to be around too, just for the processing power.Apple will continue to improve its own processors to make them better everyday devices to handle AI in all its evolved forms.It's already happening: Cloud's new OpenClause-like agent is, for starters, only for MacOS.Apple's powerful computer chips are designed for AI performance.With GPU and RAM prices skyrocketing, Apple can develop more efficient chips that run on-device local AI that keep moving forward, while allowing other companies to develop AI models.As processors become more powerful and efficient, more services can be run on more secure systems, in-house rather than in the cloud.

Wearables that empower and even control us

The peripherals we wear will expand.I already feel like a cyborg in 2026, and we haven't even started yet.Today's Apple is delving into wearable devices with its AirPods, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. Going further into the field of neurotechnology, Apple could create assistive interfaces.Neural strips for electromyography, like the ones Meta uses with its Display glasses, already suggest working with people who are missing limbs or have mobility issues.Take Apple's efforts in hearing aids and the various health monitoring features of the Apple Watch and expand their capabilities.Reports say Apple will create AirPods this year with cameras and possibly AI badges and glasses.

Apple can build a health system that connects with doctors and expands into homes, even with smart devices.The older population who are older and used to using Apple devices may find themselves under the control of the company's actions.We already have watches that can monitor our family remotely.Throw in the tiny chips and tiny AI models that run on devices, and the possibilities are blooming like crazy.

As Qualcomm's latest line of AI-focused wearable chips illustrates, the industry is moving toward more advanced watches, glasses, and pins that can handle more ancillary tasks without relying on cloud services.Apple may soon evolve its wearables to be AI-centric or have specific accessibility features built into them.Apple also has a dogged consistency in design, staying true to its mission over decades, something that companies like Google often don't share.severely

"I can actually imagine smart fabrics from Apple. I can imagine smart sports bras from Apple," Hardy said."I wouldn't be surprised if they have other wearables, really, apple rings, apple necklaces."

Mass fitness training

Apple's home spatial awareness and understanding of body movements and health statistics from wearables should lead to attempts to improve or replace the gym. Apple already offers apps created by developers that use the iPhone's camera to study sports like basketball and tennis and analyze technique using machine learning.sweat.

There may be sensors around the room and advanced wearables that can track activity, training and measuring fitness sessions. Taking Apple Fitness Plus beyond its current location, you can have a way to track and log physical activity and overlay physical activity on those activities using AR fitness glasses.

Design robots and robotics (or eventually cars)

Artificial intelligence is using the same spatial awareness system for headsets and cameras to train new generations of robots and cars.Self-driving cars have become a reality in many cities.Except for vacuum cleaners, robots are still not an everyday purchase for the home.But in 50 years?Both must be given.The difference is in design: Apple can create autonomous (or semi-autonomous) devices that work with the same spatial computing logic as headsets, to understand what you need, and are part of the same Apple account system.Your glasses can help them learn.

Apple's options may not be the cheapest, but they may be preferred due to improved design or security features.Also, maybe Apple customers have been around for decades, just like BMW drivers.

Could Apple also explore making its own car, if the car is really like a robot? Apple making a phone seems like a no-brainer. Reports about HomePod robots in the works suggest that Apple might be kicking the tires on robots.

I care about subscriptions and services: Our streaming era now locks us into plans with providers, Apple being one of the main ones.Music, movies, games, cloud storage, AI assistance, satellite connection.

Apple could move to cook most of its services across its devices.But I also think that future services may come with purchases, subsidies, or advertising support.

Where services can become more intimate is in areas such as memory expansion.How will Apple's cloud storage work across decades of a person's life and after their death? Will families inherit a reliable data archive? Unless we find a way to extract it and manage it ourselves, Apple could become the repository of people's memories.

Apple has just acquired the rights to broadcast Formula 1 and looks set to expand its partnership with sporting events.Will Apple TV be a stepping stone to creating more programs or acquiring new studios?Will Apple be the center for virtual concerts and events with spectacular glasses?If glasses are cheap enough and accessible, why not?

Could Apple be going out of business?

I asked my 13-year-old son where Apple would be in 50 years, and he said, "It's dead."I don't think he meant it literally, but he didn't hesitate to say that companies don't last forever.For him, Apple is not the most important part of his life.It's just his iPad.

I don't think that will happen to Apple, but there is a chance that it will be more popular with an older demographic than the younger ones: legacy fans.

"If you look back at other companies [that have lasted over 50 years], what the companies have in common, the successful ones, is that they pivot. Creative destruction is the key, so Apple is willing to creatively destroy its business, I think that's the key. Apple is a company that is willing to innovate. They hardly say it."

People of all ages have iPhones and AirPods, and kids are growing up with iPads.Apple's affordable MacBook Neo is another move to attract more children to its products.

Will Apple reboot the iPod or virtualize it?Will all our technological experiences begin to simulate nostalgia to meet our needs, adapting to us instead of us adapting to them?Will I be a very old person living in my world decades ago, recreated around me with Apple products I haven't seen?Or will I go and Apple will?

I've spent 50 years watching technology evolve and it seems to be happening fast.The next 50 may not be as far away as I think.But I think I won't be here in 2076. If I am, or even if I'm not, come visit me in my simulated Memorysphere.I'll be there, in Persona form.We can talk about it.