A deep dive into the tech behind Apple's ARKit, how it works, and how it is different from Google's Tango AR platform
@mattmiesnieks https://medium.com/...0-225 ...pic.twitter.com/oEVDoTp5BP
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple unveiled ARKit at WWDC in June 2017, and within weeks early demos like a virtual measuring tape suggested it could reach mainstream iPhone users faster than Google's Tango, which required specialized depth-sensing hardware. This deep dive from Super Ventures explains why: ARKit runs visual-inertial tracking on the ordinary camera and motion sensors already inside every recent iPhone.
First-order effects
- iOS developers gain phone-based AR with no new hardware purchase, putting ARKit-capable devices into far more hands than any Tango device ever shipped.
- Tango's differentiation collapses: its dedicated depth sensors, once its technical advantage, become a cost and distribution liability against software-only tracking.
Second-order effects
- Google responds within months by stripping Tango down to the ARCore SDK, abandoning the special-hardware requirement to match ARKit's reach on commodity Android phones.
- The competitive axis shifts from sensor engineering to developer tooling and installed base, where Apple's weekly App Store traffic gives it a distribution edge.
Third-order effects
- AR becomes a default OS capability rather than an accessory category, and Apple's subsequent iterations — real-time occlusion in ARKit 3, then depth sensing and Location Anchors in ARKit 4 — trace the SDK-first path toward persistent, city-scale AR.
- If the pattern holds, phone makers compete on perception software quality rather than sensor bills of materials, marginalizing hardware-only AR platforms like Tango.
The trend: Mobile AR is consolidating around software-only SDKs that run on commodity cameras, displacing dedicated depth-hardware platforms.