When RIM launched their OS 7 devices over the summer, one of the key features was augmented reality support, thanks to a magnetic compass built into their new phones and a graphical overlay API on the software side. Wikitude was the showcased partner for this tech, but at DevCon Asia, they’ve announced a fresh version for older BlackBerry handsets. Of course, you won’t be able to get the cool effect of pointing your camera in a given direction and seeing location-contextual information put on top, but at least the BBM integration is still there.
Augmented reality apps are still about as nichey as near-field communication, so the loss of the feature isn’t a huge deal, but if it boils down to little more than a local search app, then I might prefer to use something like Poynt or Google Maps. There’s a ton of different information layers Wikitude can tap into though, which make it a fair bit more broad than most other local search apps.
Regardless, it still feels a bit weird that Wikitude, an app that made its name for getting into AR is launching apps without it. Seems a little regressive, no? In any case, BlackBerry 6 users can download Wikitude from App World here.