ARCore

Just when we thought that Apple had really pulled one over on Google, some bright spark finally realised that a hardware dependant AR platform was just not going to get mass adoption at this stage. I assume we’ll still see Tango devices around for a while, but from now on it’s all about ARCore in Android land.

All the excitement about ARKit was rather impressive for us AR veterans. And Google’s silence on the matter was a little uncomfortable. I can only imagine the teeth ground down to nubs over there when ARKit was released. Beaten to the punch…

But now we can see what was really going on. Apple and Google both want us to develop apps for their devices that use their tracking solutions for AR. And why wouldn’t we? They’re good solutions- great tracking, easy to implement, tons of engaging content around…. wait…

No content…. I mean there’s dinosaurs and lots of amazing proto-games and experiences that rely on coder skills only the gods possess… but it seems that while ARCore and ARKit are another piece of the puzzle, they still lack two things-

a. a reason for commercial companies to use it

b. a reason for most users to experience it

Ikea made a great 2nd-run at AR with their ARKit app. It finally does what their first attempt failed to do- shows us furniture in our houses before we buy it. While the content is all the expensive, hand-made kind, they can afford that. So they’ve made what I think is the only viable application of either ARKit or ARCore.

 

The time is right for an AR content creation explosion. We’ll bring the dynamite. You bring the matches.

Tuck Siver

MD Blinxel PTY LTD

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