Apple has invited the press to a September 12 event. The invitation beckoned, “Gather Round,” with a simple circle. What if Apple is creating a 360 camera? “Hogwash,” you might say. Hey I know the chances of that are extremely small, but here’s how it COULD happen…
For a long while now, Apple hasn’t created any totally new groundbreaking product. They’ve been sitting on piles of cash and are looking for the next big thing, one of which is AR, and to some extent VR.
Now several months ago, a tiny little company called Insta360 approached Apple to partner up with them and sell a 360 camera called the Insta360 One (reviewed here) through their store. Somehow, Insta360 persuaded Apple, and Insta360 One appeared on the Apple online store in March 2018.
We don’t know how well Insta360 One sold on the Apple store. But perhaps it sold well enough to merit closer attention from Apple execs. Whereupon they discovered how a stabilized 360 camera could appear like an invisible flying camera. (If you’re new to 360, please have a look at this video)
It looks amazing. It looks… dare we say, “magical.”
Now there’s a word we haven’t heard in a while from Apple. Not for lack of desire, for sure. Since Steve Jobs passed away, Apple hasn’t come up with a magical product (apologies to Apple Watch fans).
Could a stabilized 360 camera be just such a product?
Stabilized 360 cameras are definitely amazing and extremely useful to average consumers, yet few people know about them. A person who sees one for the first time just might indeed describe it as magical. It would certainly transform the way they take their photos and videos.
So as our story goes, Apple execs call Insta360 and say, “Hey guys. We love your product. We want to invest your company and become co-owners. Now we want you to create a 360 camera just for us. Here are a few tweaks we want to see…”
And then poof… we wake up from our dream! 🙂
Maybe it refers to Apple Park which is circular in shape !
Agree with Nothing. To me that refers to their headquarters.
It’s possible, but they already had a meeting there last year. So i don’t know what’s the big deal about having another meeting there.
Could also be that they are getting rid of the home button on their phones. Or, that they Apple watch is going round.
I wish they’d invest in saving GoPro instead! Apple UX in a GoPro Fusion 360 MKII would be very interesting… And Maybe bring Panono into the mix too. They could probably buy both companies / tech for not very much (in their terms) and potentially give us something very high quality and reliable. (Ps. I also think it’s the shape of Apple Park they’re referring to, but since we’re dreaming… 🙂 #youstartedit!! )
Hehe… well i think it’s more likely for them to buy a company like Insta360. But they’re sitting on so much cash they could probably buy all the 360 companies haha (except Samsung)
I think you’re right about the 360 camera! And I predict it will be in the new phone, using the front and rear cameras. Why isn’t this rumor elsewhere on the web? Seems like a no-brainer.
Hi Brandon! Well I really do wish it’s a 360 camera, but the chance of it happening is actually quite low, i think! Anyway we’ll see
That would definitely be fun – that’s felt like a good option for phones for quite some time now. Who knows how likely this is, but certainly a nice idea.