Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent announcement putting Augmented Reality (AR) at the forefront of the tech giant’s product strategy has emboldened and provoked technology companies to showcase their own AT technologies and platforms.

Virtual Reality (VR) seems to have taken a back seat as the question is no longer VR or AR. The buzz is about who will dominate the AR space. Following Impossible's introduction of its Google Tango based, and open source, Glimpse platform, Facebook announced its first mainstream AR platform during its annual Developer Conference. Facebook put the camera, more specifically the camera on your smartphone, front and center of its AR strategy by unveiling Facebook Camera Effects to its developers during F8.

According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's new open source platform will allow developers to make AR apps that will enable users to view and digitally manipulate the physical world around them with smartphone cameras. A technology popularized and dominated by Snapchat's signature camera filters.

Google was the first technology giant to offer developers an open source AR platform with Tango. However, Google's Tango technology offered considerably more than simple filters with the use of motion tracking, depth perception and area learning.

Apple's Clips, Facebook's Camera Effects, and the Google Tango-enabled Glimpse have fired the first salvos to join Snap's filters in the race for AR domination. The jury is out on who will come out on top but one thing is clear: everything will unfold on the smartphone and its camera.