Apple is getting serious about augmented reality with this new appointment

For most people, AR is Pokémon Go and little else. But for Apple, it's an important part of the company's future

Apple just re-assigned Frank Casanove, former lead for iPhone Partner Marketing, into a new role: chief of Product Marketing for AR, Bloombreg reported Tuesday.

Casanova changed his LinkedIn profile bio to reflect the new title. "I'm responsible for all aspects of Product Marketing for Apple's Augmented Reality initiative," the bio says.

Casanova, an Apple veteran of 30 years, was there for the first iPhone launch in 2007. And before that, he served nearly ten years as Senior Director for MacOS X Graphics, Audio and Video.

The fact that Casanova is now the face behind Apple's AR marketing efforts is telling. It's yet another indication that the company has big plans for the technology -- and it may include new hardware and software products, as well as services, in the future.

Apple has been pushing AR as an important feature for years, launching its AR development platform, ARKit, in 2017. The platform got a slew of significant improvements in iOS 12.

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A recent report from Bloomberg said Apple plans to launch iPhones with a laser-based 3D camera as soon as 2020. Such a camera would improve the iPhone's Face ID feature, but would primarily be used for improving AR, allowing for better placement of virtual objects on the phone's display, the report said.

Furthermore, Apple may be working on an AR headset, which could also come in 2020. The rumors of this mythical device have seemingly been flying around forever, though, and are yet to materialize in any palpable way.

In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook shot down the rumors about the headset back in 2017. But he has also been pointing out AR as a really important technology, potentially as big as the smartphone itself.

As always, it's hard to tell what Apple is up to -- the company doesn't talk about unreleased products, and many of its competitors tried their hands at VR/AR hardware, with poor results. But the company is definitely up to something. All the signs are there, and we might just hear a lot more about Apple's AR efforts as soon as next year.