Qualcomm bringing augmented reality SDK to iOS
Qualcomm is bringing its augmented reality software development kit to Apple's iOS in order to expose the tool to more developers.
According to a report by Wall Street Journal blogger Ina Fried, the company originally developed its augmented reality SDK for Android, with the objective of encouraging developers to make processor intensive apps.
That in turn was hoped to create a demand for faster chips, as many Android models are based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon application processors. While Apple doesn't use Qualcomm's CPUs in its iPhone and iPad, the company hopes to broaden the use of its toolkit by addressing iOS, which continues to attract prime attention from developers.
Speaking at a conference yesterday, Qualcomm's Jay Wright said, "Android was a logical starting point because of developer momentum and Snapdragon penetration. Moving forward we will support additional operating systems.?
While augmented reality apps already exist on Apple's iOS platform, the new Qualcomm development tools promise to make it easier for developers to create new titles. The new tools will be available to iOS developers in July.
Qualcomm has also sponsored development challenges, paying winning entries between $50,000 and $125,000 last year. The first place prize was awarded to an augmented reality game named Paparazzi by Lithuanian developer Pixel Punch.
That company's co-founder, Paulius Liekis, was pleased to see Qualcomm porting its tools to iOS, noting that Apple's platform offers a better return for developers compared to Android Market. iOS users "appreciate good content,? Liekis said. ?On Android, consumers are different. They do not want to pay.?
Second place prize winner Morgan Jaffit, who created the game Inch High Stunt Guy (shown below), also noted that the move was "fantastic for us because it opens up a market."
A student team from USC that won third place in Qualcomm's contest also said that it was looking forward to bring its Danger Coper game to the iOS App Store. "Definitely it motivates us so much more to finish it up," grad student Kedar Reddy said.
According to a report by Wall Street Journal blogger Ina Fried, the company originally developed its augmented reality SDK for Android, with the objective of encouraging developers to make processor intensive apps.
That in turn was hoped to create a demand for faster chips, as many Android models are based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon application processors. While Apple doesn't use Qualcomm's CPUs in its iPhone and iPad, the company hopes to broaden the use of its toolkit by addressing iOS, which continues to attract prime attention from developers.
Speaking at a conference yesterday, Qualcomm's Jay Wright said, "Android was a logical starting point because of developer momentum and Snapdragon penetration. Moving forward we will support additional operating systems.?
While augmented reality apps already exist on Apple's iOS platform, the new Qualcomm development tools promise to make it easier for developers to create new titles. The new tools will be available to iOS developers in July.
Qualcomm has also sponsored development challenges, paying winning entries between $50,000 and $125,000 last year. The first place prize was awarded to an augmented reality game named Paparazzi by Lithuanian developer Pixel Punch.
That company's co-founder, Paulius Liekis, was pleased to see Qualcomm porting its tools to iOS, noting that Apple's platform offers a better return for developers compared to Android Market. iOS users "appreciate good content,? Liekis said. ?On Android, consumers are different. They do not want to pay.?
Second place prize winner Morgan Jaffit, who created the game Inch High Stunt Guy (shown below), also noted that the move was "fantastic for us because it opens up a market."
A student team from USC that won third place in Qualcomm's contest also said that it was looking forward to bring its Danger Coper game to the iOS App Store. "Definitely it motivates us so much more to finish it up," grad student Kedar Reddy said.
Comments
Does Qualcomm think Apple has no interest in this on their own Platform?
IF Apple does have interest in this, Qualcomm will be even more thrilled, since the idea is to push phone manufacturers to buy faster processors.
Besides, its not comparable, since this is cross-platform, and Apple's solution almost certainly wont be.
IF Apple does have interest in this, Qualcomm will be even more thrilled, since the idea is to push phone manufacturers to buy faster processors.
Besides, its not comparable, since this is cross-platform, and Apple's solution almost certainly wont be.
Like I said, what for? People who want to cross-develop for Android and iOS be my guest. I'll stick to the system I know has a long and stable ecosystem, founded in APIs that have been in development since 1986. Yes, Cocoa/ObjC has been developed since then. The name changes, but the history and architecture is just evolving.
Like I said, what for? People who want to cross-develop for Android and iOS be my guest. I'll stick to the system I know has a long and stable ecosystem, founded in APIs that have been in development since 1986. Yes, Cocoa/ObjC has been developed since then. The name changes, but the history and architecture is just evolving.
Because:
1) There is no guarantee if, and when, Apple would release such an API.
2) This is a greater attraction for developers who are ALREADY using this API. Read all the developers' comments about how excited they are.
3) The cross platform nature will not hurt the iOS experience. Its much too low level for that. The developers will be using this to drive their calculations, etc. It will not affect their UI development, which will still be done using Cocoa Touch. This is hardly a replacement for, but rather augments Cocoa.
It seems to me that you are misunderstanding what this SDK is all about. Its nothing like Java, which tried to slap an unnatural UI on the Mac, but resembles all the game engines (many of which are cross platform...in fact, some of the biggest need Windows to develop games in) that drive all the best games on iOS.
Here's a list of the top 5 game engines for iOS:
http://unity3d.com/unity/
http://sio2interactive.com/platform.php
http://www.ogre3d.org/about/features
http://brenwill.com/cocos3d/
http://www.udk.com/
All but 1 of them is cross platform. I hardly think anyone is complaining about the quality of games on iOS.
Additionally, almost all the graphics on the Mac and iOS is based on OpenGL. Again, cross platform. The level at which this API will work is not affected negatively by cross platform development at all.