Apple ARKit developer beats IKEA to the punch with AR furniture app

The augmented reality app space is expected to explode this fall thanks to developers using Apple's ARKit for iOS.

But one developer is moving faster than even some of the major brands linked to Apple's AR platform, having just demonstrated an amazing AR app before IKEA got a chance to launch its own ARKit-powered app.

Asher Vollmer, one of the developers behind the popular mobile game Threes, took to Twitter on Friday to reveal his experiment with ARKit: a fully functioning AR app that lets you arrange furniture in the real world.

If you've already seen ARKit apps in action, this might sound like just another AR demo, but you have to watch the video to realize just how powerful the app is. In just under a minute, Vollmer populates an empty space -- while people are moving about in the background -- with realistic looking furniture, plants, and even a working fireplace.

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The array of options on Vollmer's app also allows him to change the size of a piece of furniture in line with real world dimensions, making this a perfect tool for decorators, realtors, and even architects.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and IKEA executive Michael Valdsgaard both recently touted the company's effort to roll out an ARKit-powered app soon. But Vollmer beat them to the punch, with powerful results.

But because iOS 11, ARKit's native environment, isn't going officially pubic until the fall, many ARKit-created apps, including Vollmer's, aren't available to most users yet.

This is just the latest example of the developer enthusiasm around ARKit, with independent developers having already demonstrated apps that highlight Tesla and SpaceX in AR environments via the iPhone.

Anyone wondering if AR on the iPhone is viable as a practical tool beyond gaming, these examples are giving us all the proof we need to illustrate exactly what's possible. Even better: the demos are only getting more impressive with each passing week.