Apple CEO Tim Cook thinks augmented reality could be as big as the smartphone.
Who wouldn’t want to be part of that? But apps built with Apple’s impressive new ARKit augmented reality platform — announced Monday at the company’s 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) — won’t necessarily work with your existing Apple phone or tablet.
Apple’s developer site says ARKit requires a phone or tablet with an Apple A9 or A10 processor, which narrows down the list to these specific devices:
- iPhone 6S and 6S Plus
- iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
- iPhone SE
- iPad Pro (9.7, 10.5 or 12.9)
- iPad (2017)
That’s still many millions of devices, mind — but also many, many millions of today’s still-viable iPads and iPhones without. No iPad Air, no iPad Mini, no iPhone 6 or earlier.
So even if your phone or tablet gets the new iOS 11 operating system this fall — which is likely, to be sure — you may have to settle for Pikachu slightly floating above the pavement instead of being realistically grounded.
[Source”cnbc”]