On a mountain all it takes is one small disruption to create a massive avalanche. The same can be said for new ideas and applications in the tech space. One small change to an existing technology can change the entire landscape of how we operate in our everyday lives.

Just this month, Apple announced the release of ARKit, and it very well could be the ‘small’ disruption that creates a massive avalanche of new ways to incorporate augmented reality into our everyday lives.

With Facebook, Snapchat and Google, all taking turns experimenting with augmented reality in their own way, Apple’s ARKit is unique in the fact that it will give developers (such as yours truly) an outlet to develop augmented reality experiences for all iOS users. Here at Gravity Jack, we believe that the steps Apple has taken to open its door to outside developers will create the needed blitz of practical and useful AR experiences that we’ve been talking about for years.

Consider this: Why do we have so many apps on our phones? Because they help us complete a task, get to a specific location, or even pay for things. They help us get real things done, in practical ways. Don’t get us wrong, we’ll be the first ones in line to create massive 3D battlefields of Lego characters on kitchen tables, but focusing on only these commercialized, novelty augmented reality experiences is failing to recognize a large (and we think critical) section of the AR market.

Here’s an example from LaanLabs, showcasing just one of ARKit’s useful and practical applications.

Is it as entertaining as a Michael Bay trailer? No, but it’s useful — and seeing AR beginning to break into the mainstream through these practical applications is pretty darn cool. Rather than surface level, entertainment applications (which certainly have their place), we’re beginning to see reasons for AR to hold residency in the lives of everyday people (and their devices).

At Gravity Jack, we have spent a great deal of time talking about how augmented reality can be useful to our military or the construction industry (just to name a couple) through our Adroit platform. While we see a huge impact by Adroit (and AR as a whole) on these widespread verticals, we think it’s just as important and exciting to see more simple, everyday use cases for this incredible technology. After all, avalanches are made up of countless tiny snowflakes that make a huge impact.