Is Apple employing Valve to develop an AR headset?
According to rumours, Apple will present an AR headset next year with the help of Valve.
There have been persistent rumours for some time that Apple is working on a secret AR or VR project. Now the tech portal DigiTimes is adding fuel to the fire. Apple is said to be working with Valve on an AR headset. Valve, the company behind Steam and developer of "Dota 2" and "Half-Life", owns the Valve Index, probably the most advanced VR headset currently available - for PC, of course. They have not yet presented anything in the AR sector, but that could now change.
According to DigiTimes' sources, the AR headset could be launched on the market as early as the second half of 2020. It will be produced by the two Taiwanese companies Quanta Computer and Pegatron. Although Valve primarily specialises in VR, Apple is backing the AR horse with this partnership. According to the article:
«CEO Tim Cook is convinced that AR can transfer digital content into users' everyday lives and will become just as popular as smartphones.»
This is why Apple has significantly increased AR development. This contradicts DigiTimes's own report from July. There it was still said that Apple had briefly halted AR/VR development and disbanded the team responsible. However, it appears that Apple has only switched from in-house development to collaboration with Valve.
Glasses symbol in the code
An indication that the rumours could be true is provided by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. A month ago, he also pointed to an Apple AR headset that is set to go into mass production this year. In the code of Apple's Xcode 11 development environment and in iOS 13, attentive users also found references to Apple's AR ambitions. In addition, the Mac blog Macrumors found an icon in the "Find My" app that depicts an AR or VR headset.
Source: Macrumors
It seems relatively clear that Apple is working in the field of augmented or virtual reality. Whether the rumours about the collaboration with Valve will also come true remains to be seen.
What do you think? Is there any truth to the rumours and do you think it will work out?
Being the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
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