According to industry sources quoted by Taiwanese publication, Digitimes, Apple has partnered with US-based gaming giant, Valve, to develop its much-rumored AR headset that’s said to launch next year. As per the report, Taiwaese ODMs, Quanta Computer and Pegatron, have been assigned to handle the assembly job, but there’s no word at this stage about what to expect from the device itself.
Valve is fairly experienced in the consumer VR space, having already working with HTC on its Vive VR headset. The company also launched the Vive Index VR headset earlier this year, but the tie-up with Apple could give it unprecedented exposure, given the goodwill and reach the latter has among mainstream tech consumers.
As for the association between Apple and Valve, this isn’t the first time the two are tying up either, with the two having previously worked together to bring native VR headset support to macOS High Sierra, leveraging the software’s eGPU support with a macOS version of Steam.
The latest development comes in the wake of a recent Bloomberg report that claimed the Cupertino giant is targeting a 2020 release date for its AR glasses. According to the report, Apple’s glasses will come with a holographic display, and users will be able to sync it with iPhones to display texts and incoming notifications right in front of their eyes using augmented reality.
Apple will be hoping that its AR device succeed where the Google Glass failed so miserably, but only time will tell whether the company will be able to do that going forward.
