Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday that Apple's Chinese contract manufacturer Luxshare Precision Industries Co Ltd will assist in developing the iPhone maker's upcoming augmented reality (AR) product.
According to the report, which cites unnamed "people familiar with the matter," Luxshare has acquired the Shanghai-based augmented reality (AR) development team of Taiwan's Pegatron, the first company to assist Apple in developing the device.
Nikkei reports that Foxconn, also based in Taiwan, is assisting with the project and that Apple has enlisted the services of two of its most key suppliers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Sony, to create mini OLED displays for the product.
Apple's reported VR/AR mixed reality device may finally be on the horizon. Apple has yet to reveal the product, but we know the company has ambitious goals for augmented reality. In this respect, the VR/AR headset is the next logical step.
It's important to note that the VR/AR headset is very different from the rumored Apple Glasses. These are rumored to be AR specialists and won't be available anytime soon. Meanwhile, the VR/AR headset may arrive as early as 2023, making it a direct competitor to the Meta Quest 2, PSVR 2, and other top-tier VR devices.
Several rumors have surfaced about Apple's virtual reality and augmented reality offerings, including the company's plans for the future of display technology, possible pricing, and an estimated release date. Even the screen of Apple's rumored second-generation virtual reality/augmented reality headset, which has not yet been officially launched, has been the subject of speculation.
As a result of collaborations between Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm on XR projects, the mixed-reality headset market is expected to grow rapidly in 2023.
It was speculated that Apple's virtual reality/augmented reality headset will be unveiled in March 2023, with pre-orders not shipping until the following fall. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg says the company may delay the release of its headset. Now, Gurman expects everything to go down in June at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference as the company scrambles to fix its hardware and software.
The analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted the same timeline, with an introduction in the spring or summer of 2023 and a release in the fall following that. He hypothesizes that production issues are delaying both the public announcement and the product's release in stores. The speculations have been accumulating around a reveal sometime in the spring, so it appears that the delays have been dealt with.
