More than a dozen augmented reality companies have asked Apple to open up the iPhone 3GS' live video feature for their apps.
Their online petition suggests that if it doesn't, developers may look to other mobile platforms instead.
"We believe Apple has a window of opportunity of about 3 months before developers start looking elsewhere," says the petition, as reported on VentureBeat.
"If Apple decides to publish the API in that time frame – in the next 10 years, everyone might be using the iPhone as the preferred device to interact with the real world."
That in a nutshell describes what augmented reality (AR for short) is: you point your handset at something in the real-world, and an AR app then overlays graphics and interactivity onto the video feed.
There are already several examples for Android handsets, including the innovative Wikitude AR travel guide (pictured). Meanwhile, Nokia has been pushing developers to create AR games for its future smartphones.
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