With Apple's Tuesday release of iOS 11, you can now use Wayfair's iPhone and iPad apps to preview 3D models of furniture in your home, thanks to the power of augmented reality.
The app's new AR feature for iOS 11 tries to solve a major problem faced by online-only furniture retailers like Wayfair: figuring out if something like a couch or a table will fit and how it will look in your home before you plunk down hundreds of dollars for the purchase.
The feature, which is available on all iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 11, can be found by tapping on the "View in Room 3D" button for products. Once enabled, the app opens the device's camera and shows a 3D visualization of furniture or decor that can be moved and rotated on a surface with the swipe of a finger. A user can also walk around the 3D visualization to get an idea of what the product looks like from different angles. If satisfied, the user can then make a purchase right within the app.
Wayfair's investments in AR and virtual reality are finally starting to pay off, between the widespread availability of iOS 11's ARKit framework and the recent release of two Android smartphones that are specifically designed to run AR apps. Sometime this winter, Google is expected to release its own AR platform, ARCore, which will enable AR features on 100 million existing and upcoming mobile devices, including Samsung Galaxy S8 phones.
"The availability of Apple’s ARKit will bring the power of augmented reality to our mass-market customer."
“The availability of Apple’s ARKit will bring the power of augmented reality to our mass-market customer. We’re excited to realize the true potential of AR, and now, deliver our own technology to virtually all of our customers as we transform the way people shop for their homes,” Steve Conine, co-founder and co-chairman at Wayfair, said in a statement.
As first reported by BostInno, Wayfair's AR and VR development efforts officially began in November 2015 when the company formed a new research and development team, Wayfair Next. Mike Festa, the team's director, first started pursuing AR and VR projects for Wayfair through company hackathons in 2014 and 2015.
Wayfair's stock price has reached a high point this year. While shares took a dip during the month of August, they are back up this month at $79.30 per share as of Tuesday afternoon, giving the company a $6.9 billion market cap. For the company's second quarter, it beat Wall Street's expectations on revenue by $60 million and earnings by 20 cents.
