Apple partners with Valve for developing AR headset: Report

Apple is long-rumoured to have been working on an Augmented Reality (AR) headset. A new report claims that the Cupertino-based tech giant has partnered with a game development company for its AR headset scheduled to launch in 2020.

According to a MacRumors report, sources told Digitimes that game developer company Valve would work with Apple for developing an AR head-mounted display device. The same report mentions that Apple is also in talks with Taiwan's ODMs Quanta Computer and Pegatron for assembling the AR headset.

Earlier this year, Valve released its own virtual reality headset called the Valve Index. The company has also worked with Apple in the past to bring native VR headset support to macOS High Sierra. However, this time around, Apple’s partnership with Valve will be focusing more on AR than VR.

“[Apple] CEO Tim Cook believes that AR can make digital content become part of the user's world and will be as popular as smartphones with consumers”, the report read.

The partnership is also looked upon as Apple’s push to step up the development of AR software by recruiting more engineers for graphic design, system interface, and system architecture segments.

The Digitimes report states that Apple could launch the Valve-partnered AR headset during the second half of 2020. Popular analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple would launch an AR headset during Q2 2020. He had stated that Apple would partner with third-party brands to release the first headset.