Apple was born in 1976, and it's turning 50. I know the feeling. When I turned 50, not so long ago, I stared off into space for a while, started some new projects and did fun things with my friends.

But then what? Me, I'm still working that out. For Apple, the future is equally uncertain. Even when you're one of the largest companies and the dominant maker of computers, phones and wearables, what's the trajectory in a world overrun with disruptive AI and facing economic headwinds and climate change?

Over the last 20 years, I've reviewed most of Apple's emerging products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch, from AirPods to the Vision Pro. I grew up with Apple tech: When I was a kid, we had an Apple IIC in our home computer room and an Apple-made dot-matrix printer connected to it.

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

Fifty years is an impossible span of time to consider. And yet, in 1976, early forms of the internet and computers existed. And even back in 2009, when I started at CNET, I thought laptops would disappear in favor of phones and tablets. I was half-right. Laptops are still here.

So what's next? Does Apple become a legacy company honoring its nostalgic brands? Is it an increasingly design-focused company geared to rich people? Will it become focused on elder care? Could Apple take a wild flex to new products? Will it be making furniture, cars and robots in 2076? Or growing engineered foods? Will my kids have Apple products living inside their heads?

To get some help, I called Annie Hardy, Global AI Architect and Futurist at computer networking giant Cisco Systems, whom I met a couple of weeks ago at SXSW. I asked for her thoughts on what's next for Apple as I brainstormed my own. 

"We're not just working and looking at one future," Hardy says of her work as a futurist. "We're looking at alternative futures. A futurist is looking at what's potentially going to happen and tries to prepare people for that."

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

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A brand for everyone, or the rich?

I often think about who can afford tech, and where Apple fits in that spectrum. On one hand, there's the affordable $599 MacBook Neo. On the other hand, there's the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro and the $549 AirPod Max headphones. The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest in our economy is increasing sharply. Apple sometimes tries to straddle the affordability line. Could its high-end design skew even more toward those who can afford pricey products in the future? 

"When we think about the future of technology being this bifurcation between the haves and the have-nots, and we think about this company [Apple] who's creating these amazing things, with the price of compute and rare earth minerals, the question is, who is Apple going to serve?" says Hardy.

It could go multiple ways, Hardy suggests, and I can see that pull and push now. So many people have iPhones and AirPods, or even iPods. And yet, everyone can't afford everything. High design at high prices has been Apple's specialty for years, but making design accessible can be, too. 

Spatial universe

I cover a lot of XR (VR and AR) headset tech, so, obviously, I think about it a lot. Most people still don't wear headsets, Meta's VR plans seem to be in decline, and Apple's technologically impressive Vision Pro looks like a market failure. Even the person who coined the word "metaverse," author and former Magic Leap employee Neal Stephenson, no longer thinks the future of tech will be on our faces.

I think he's wrong. While we won't all wear tech on our faces, some of us will. More importantly, the spatial awareness of VR/AR headsets is a precursor to a wider-ranging effort right now for AI to map and be aware of the entire physical world, to help robots, drones, self-driving cars and other AI systems work in everyday life. That "world model" effort is underway now, with many companies pursuing it.

Should world models finally work well with AI, it won't just be robots that benefit. AR glasses will, too. 

While we may not all be wearing AR glasses in 10 years, I think it'll happen in 50 for sure. Or at least heavily assistive sensory-enabled wearables. Apple could emphasize more private handling of sensitive personal data and pursue assistive features (such as hearing, vision and even health-monitoring aids). Imagine being able to simulate or create anything in the world on the fly, from people in chats to art on walls, to memories of where things used to be. Or just for guidance while doing nearly anything, like getting instructions or seeing data overlays.

Apple has learned a lot from the Vision Pro, Hardy says. "Apple's not done with wearables. Apple's not done with glasses. Apple's not done with spatial. But Apple is going to wait until they launch the absolute right spatial."

The future of cameras to scan your life

A subset of Apple's spatial computing ambitions is in its camera tech. Apple's already a default camera company for millions. But the leap into computational photography, and eventually reality capture, is already underway. An emerging technology called Gaussian splatting can already create 3D renders of objects or spaces: Apple's Persona avatars use it. So does Google Maps, and Meta's room-scanning app Hyperscape Capture. I even gave an award for Best Splat last month. Extend this out decades, and add video; cameras should be able to holographically record anything. Apple could literally be capturing memories like a time machine.

3D scanning is a weird process now, still not mainstream or easy to use. If it becomes instant and simply handled by Apple's camera apps, then it could be the future of photography. Anything could be captured and recreated at any angle, or "stepped into" later. Important documents, objects and memories could be preserved. Apple Memories become world archives. Put these cameras in places in your home, or on glasses, and suddenly you might have a way to remember everything.

What will stay with us? Phones (and computers, too)

Even if spatial computing accelerates, I think phones will still be our most important devices. In that sense, Stephenson is right. I don't think they'll look the same, work the same or even be entirely visible when we're using them, but Apple's dominance in phones is a huge part of where we're heading. 

We don't have modems in our heads and I don't think we'll have implants (or always want them, even if they're available). But phones are our personal hotspots and computing hubs. And they'll be the devices that our wearable peripherals reliably connect to.

Phones have already radically changed over the last 50 years, and even over the last 15 years since I've been reviewing them: They're our identity, an extension of our consciousness, almost an organ of our bodies. I'm sorry to say that'll just keep going. And in new forms: folding and dockable phones extending to the environment around us and into infinite monitors, both real and virtual. 

Apple could find a way to make it all more seamless and invisible. It'll surely keep extending its services and find premium extras to lock us into the experience.

"In the next 50 years, I think there's an off chance that if they do not have implantable devices themselves, then what they will have is the ability for people to leverage the App Store, to be able to connect to apps that integrate with implanted devices," Hardy says. "And so Apple will be a broker of technological capabilities that tap into brain computer interfaces, invasive or noninvasive, the phone being the power."

I'm sure non-phone computers will stick around too, just for the processing power. Apple will keep advancing its own processors to make them better everyday devices for handling AI in all its evolving forms. It's already happening: Claude's new OpenClaw-like agent is MacOS-only to start. Apple's powerful computer chips are designed for AI performance. With GPU and RAM prices skyrocketing, Apple could develop more efficient chips that work with local on-device AI that keeps advancing, while letting other companies develop AI models. As processors become more powerful and efficient, more services could be run at home rather than in the cloud, on more secure systems.

Wearables that enhance us and even monitor us

The peripherals we wear will keep expanding. I already feel like a cyborg in 2026, and we haven't even gotten started. The Apple of today is deep in wearables with its AirPods, Apple Watch and Vision Pro. Take it further, into neurotech, and Apple could make assistive interfaces. Neural bands with electromyography, like Meta's using with its Display glasses, already hint at working with people who have missing limbs or motor challenges. Take Apple's efforts in hearing assistance and the Apple Watch's various health-monitoring features, and extend those way out. Reports say Apple's building AirPods with cameras on them this year, and possible AI pins and glasses, too.

Apple could be building health systems that interface with doctors and extend into homes, even with assistive robots. An aging population living longer and accustomed to using Apple devices could find itself cared for by the company's services. We already have watches that can monitor our families remotely. Factor in ever-smaller chips and compact AI models that run on-device, and the possibilities blossom like crazy.

As Qualcomm's newest AI-focused wearable chip line shows, the industry is moving toward more advanced watches, glasses and pins that can handle more assistive tasks without relying on cloud services. Apple's likely to evolve its wearables soon to be AI-focused or to build specific assistive functions. Apple also has the kind of stubborn consistency in design that keeps it true to its mission over decades, something that companies like Google often don't do with hardware.

"I could envision smart fabrics from Apple, actually. I could totally envision a smart sports bra from Apple," says Hardy. "I wouldn't be surprised if they had other wearable jewelry, honestly. Apple ring. Apple necklace."

Fitness training on a massive scale

Apple's spatial awareness of rooms and understanding of our body movements and health stats from wearables should lead to serious attempts to enhance or replace your gym. Apple already has developer-made apps that use onboard iPhone cameras to study sports like basketball and tennis, and use machine learning to analyze technique. VR programs like Meta's nearly discontinued Supernatural have been my go-to for home workouts for years, but headsets get weird and sweaty.

There could be entire rooms with sensor awareness and more advanced wearables that can track activity, train and simulate gym sessions. Take Apple Fitness Plus and move it way beyond what it is now, and you might have a way to track and record physical activities and overlay virtual training onto them with fitness-ready AR glasses.

Home and robot design (or, maybe, cars after all?)

That same system of spatial awareness for headsets and cameras is exactly what AI is using to train new generations of robots and cars. Self-driving cars are a reality in a handful of cities. Vacuums aside, robots aren't yet an everyday home purchase. But 50 years from now? Both should be a given. The difference is in design: Apple could make autonomous (or semi-autonomous) devices running the same spatial computing logic as headsets in order to understand what you need, since they're part of the same Apple account system. Maybe your glasses would even help train them.

Apple's options might not be the cheapest, but they could be preferred for their step-up design or security features. Also, maybe Apple customers over many decades just prefer it, like BMW drivers.

Could Apple once again explore building its own car, once automobiles truly feel more like robots? Apple making a phone once seemed absurd, too. Reports of a sort-of-robotic HomePod in the works show that Apple may be kicking the tires on robotics soon.

Services unleashed

I worry about subscriptions and services: Our streaming age now locks us into plans with providers, Apple being a major one. Music, movies, games, cloud storage, AI assistance, satellite connectivity.

Apple might move to bake many of its services into its devices. But I also think future services might come with a purchase, or be subsidized, or even be ad-supported. 

Where services could get a lot more intimate is in areas like memory extension. How does Apple's cloud storage work over decades of someone's life, and then after they die? Will families inherit trusted archives of data? Apple could be a repository for people's memories, unless we find a way to just extract that and manage it on our own.

Apple just acquired the broadcast rights to F1 and looks to be extending into more sports partnerships. Will Apple TV be the stepping stone to making more programming or acquiring more studios? Will Apple be a hub for virtual concert and event access via immersive glasses? If the glasses are cheap enough and the access good enough, why not?

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08:03

Could Apple just fade away?

I asked my 13-year-old son where Apple would be in 50 years, and he said, "dead." I don't think he meant that literally, but he said, unblinkingly, that companies don't always last forever. To him, Apple isn't that key a part of his life. It's just his iPad.

I don't think that'll happen with Apple, but there's a chance it'll become more popular with older populations than with younger ones: legacy fans.

"If you look back at other companies [that have endured over 50 years], what the companies have in common, the ones that succeed, is they pivot. Creative destruction is critical, and so Apple being willing to creatively destroy their business, I think, is what the critical thing is. Apple is a company who is willing to innovate. They get ahead of it," Hardy says.

People of all ages have iPhones and AirPods, and kids are raised on iPads. Apple's affordable MacBook Neo is another move to get more kids into its products. 

Would Apple rerelease the iPod, or simulate it virtually? Will all of our tech experiences start becoming nostalgically simulated to meet our needs, adapting to us instead of us adapting to them? Will I be a very old man living in my decades-ago world, recreated around me with Apple products I can't even see? Or will I be gone, and Apple too?

I've already spent 50 years watching tech evolve, and it feels like it happened fast. The next 50 might not be as far away as I think. But I assume I won't be here in 2076. If I am, or even if I'm not, come meet me in my simulated Memorysphere. I'll be there, in Persona form. We can have a chat about it then.