Apple AR: Tim Cook Makes Rare Animoji Appearance, Pushes AR Amid Slow iPhone X Sales Reports

In the wake of reports of slow iPhone X sales and a possible early end to its shelf life, Apple CEO Tim Cook is on a public goodwill tour of sorts, espousing the virtues of Apple AR.

While iPhone X may have underwhelmed the AR community, it has since carved a niche (if not a notch) among content creators via its exclusive Animoji AR camera effects and developers experimenting with its TrueDepth camera.

Duke University showed off its Animoji creativity in a video announcing that its 2018 commencement address would be delivered by Cook, who earned his MBA at Duke after graduating from Auburn University. (Somewhere out there, an Alabama Crimson Tide football and North Carolina Tarheels basketball fan who carries an Android smartphone and a Windows laptop just got triggered.)

Cook himself makes an appearance in the video next to his fox likeness (probably a disappointment to Craig Federighi, senior vice-president of software engineering at Apple, who initially "called dibs" on the fox as his avatar).

• Don't Miss: Apple's iPhone X Animojis Are Now Invading Your Favorite TV Shows

Elsewhere, Cook traveled to Canada to meet with the staff from Shopify on Monday. While there, he checked out a a new 3D product model in AR via an iOS shopping app. Unlike Animoji, ARKit is not exclusive to the iPhone X, but it is a key cog in the company's current AR strategy nonetheless.

Now, less than a week after bearish speculation with regard to iPhone X sales, the same analyst who poked the bear is now coddling the bull by framing the device and its TrueDepth camera as a "strategic success."

While this could all be coincidental, the sequence of events has coincided with the release of Apple's first quarter earnings report just about a week away. (Apple's 2018 fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2017.)

If this is all a coincidence, then hipster tweens think iPads are computers.

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