It wasn’t until Apple introduced ARKit and Google launched ARCore, both platforms that make it easier for developers to create augmented reality apps, that companies, developers, and even the public began to see that augmented reality (AR) would become mainstream. Even though the technology for AR that overlays virtual images onto the real world had existed before, once these development platforms launched it became significantly easier to build apps. Since it became easier to build AR apps, there was a boost in the release of them on a scale similar to the adoption rates that Apple saw in 2008 when they opened the App Store. Ideas for AR applications beyond gaming began to percolate, and companies such as IKEA and L’Oreal started dreaming up uses for the technology that could enhance the customer experience. As with any new exciting technology—and AR is no different—many people have things to say about the possibilities and perils of adopting it.

Here are a few of our favourite quotes about augmented reality.

“I do think that a significant portion of the population of developed countries, and eventually all countries, will have AR experiences every day, almost like eating three meals a day. It will become that much a part of you.” —Tim Cook

“We wouldn’t have been able to touch this before [ARKit was announced]. If you even wanted to consider AR you had to work out how to do things like plane detection and for three guys in a room trying to make games, that’s huge.” —Travis Ryan

“There are a lot of issues that it opens up like for example who is allowed to place an augmented reality object where. Can someone from Burger King walk into a McDonald’s and place a Burger King ad there? What are the rules? It’s a whole new kind of field of consideration.” — Scott Belsky

“Augmented reality is the ‘boy who cried wolf’ of the post-Internet world—it’s long been promised but has rarely been delivered in a satisfying way. —Om Malik “A key part of that journey is making an open platform where any developer can create anything they want.” —Mark Zuckerberg    

“Well we believe that augmented reality is one of those new mediums that could be as big as if not bigger than the web. One of the areas where consumers adopt something new is when it makes something drastically easier. When I think about augmented reality I think about instances like finding your way somewhere, finding your friends in a stadium, or going to a conference and looking around and knowing who everyone is because their LinkedIn profile is hanging over their heads.” — Scott Belsky

“We took the heavy lifting and put it in the operating system and now the developer can focus on their passions – the board game, the space app and so on.” —Tim Cook

“I’m excited about augmented reality because unlike virtual reality, which closes the world out, AR allows individuals to be present in the world but hopefully allows an improvement on what’s happening presently.” —Tim Cook

“I think everyone would basically agree that we do not have the science or technology today to build the AR glasses that we want. We may in five years, or seven years, or something like that. But we’re not likely to be able to deliver the experience that we want right now.” —Mark Zuckerberg

“But I think getting the stepping stones right is the art in this.” —Mark Zuckerberg

“There will be hundreds of millions of phones that will be AR ready. And the current stage is … we are helping developers … build the experiences … so that it becomes a daily habit. And once it does, I suspect the natural evolution of monetization comes through.” —Amit Singh

“We think AR apps will command a price premium.” —Wamsi Mohan

“Simply put, we believe augmented reality is going to change the way we use technology forever. We’re already seeing things that will transform the way you work, play, connect and learn.” —Tim Cook

“Next we’re looking at how do we make that even more immersive, and how do we allow more people to have a shared experience together in a public space.” —John Hanke

“AR is going to take a while, because there are some really hard technology challenges there. But it will happen, it will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, how we ever lived without it. Like we wonder how we lived without our phone today.” —Tim Cook