Apple's ARKit has developers drooling

There was plenty of excitement when Apple announced its plans to build augmented reality support into the next version of iOS. And the enthusiasm has only grown as developers have started to play with ARKit and ponder what they can do."I don't think most people are realizing how much of a barrier Apple just ripped down," said Mapbox CEO Eric Gundersen. There are more than 100 million iPhones and iPads already capable of running iOS 11 and ARKit with nearly 200 million likely to be in use by the end of year. "They literally just made everybody's phone into AR experience."Gunderson sees Android phones likely to follow quickly: "You know Samsung and Google are not far behind on that."While iOS 11 remains in beta, consumers have started to get some early peeks at what developers are cooking up, thanks in part to a Twitter account dedicated to showcasing such efforts. Highlighted projects range from AR Tic-Tac-Toe to virtual measuring tapes to the ability to see items from a restaurant menu.Mapbox, meanwhile has been working on a couple demos of its own, including this Bay Area map on a table and this topographical map.ARKit may well be a prelude to a dedicated device like glasses, but just the possibilities on the iPhone seem pretty exciting.