Apple banks on augmented reality to reignite smartphone market

AR uses a phone's camera and other sensor to enhance what appears on screen, and may have a billion users by 2021

Smartphone makers have been getting anxious in the past couple of years. People have been hanging on to their phones for longer, meaning slower sales in China, the US and Europe. They need something new to reignite the market, and now Apple thinks it has found the elixir to persuade everyone to buy new phones again.

The company is pinning its hopes on "augmented reality" or AR, which uses a combination of the phone's camera and other sensors to enhance what it shows on the screen - to show, on your phone or tablet's screen, things that aren't there but which you might like to see.