Watch: Apple's Approach to Augmented Reality for iOS Devices

Apple is announcing lots of support for both AR and VR this week, the latter I'm less interested in (due to my petty no-one-is-actually-using-VR hairsplitting) -- but the AR for iOS is pretty cool. Watch above. The demo is iPad-only, but iPhone support is expected to come soon. Which is a good thing, because AR-ing with a bulkier, heavier iPad is likely to get hand-strainy soon. More from Dean Takahashi, who shot the video above:

It appears Apple hopes ARKit will be used for gaming. Wingnut AR showed off a game (coming later this year) and Apple promised that Pokémon Go will eventually support ARKit. Games aside, Apple also mentioned that Ikea is making an app and showed off a Batman Lego app. This is a big deal for Apple because it is the first time that its hardware and software is officially going to support augmented reality. Third-party iOS apps have toyed with AR capabilities, sure, but now Apple is throwing its weight behind the technology. ARKit leverages the iPhone’s and iPad’s camera, motion sensors, as well as their CPU and GPU. The company is going all in. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, declared that “hundreds of million of iPhones” will support ARKit, making iOS “the largest AR platform in the world.” Federighi added that Apple will share more about its augmented reality strategy “later this year” (likely when it unveils the next iPhones).

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Introducing AR into a billion smartphones would also give Apple the opportunity to learn about user behavior and experience. The company could then use that insight to build a long-term plan for its rumored "Apple Glasses." Apple is methodically laying the groundwork for a closed ecosystem of hardware, software, developers, tools, and consumers—in typical Apple fashion.