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Apple said to partner with Valve to make AR headset

Next year we may be able to do this without holding up an iPad to our faces.

A report claims that Apple is working with game distributor Valve for the development of an Augmented Reality head-mounted display, which may be released in the second half of 2020.

Citing supply chain reports, Digitimes claims that Apple has partnered with the game developer, Valve, in order to produce an Augmented Reality headset. As well as developing the headset with Steam, Apple is said to be using familiar suppliers Pegatron and Quanta Computer to assemble the device. It's not expected to be released before the second half of 2020 at the earliest.

Valve wouldn't be providing VR or AR experiences itself, but could use the Steam distribution system to distribute them. Back in 2017, Valve leveraged Apple's macOS High Sierra's eGPU and virtual reality support to bring a beta version of its SteamVR to the Mac.

Then for macOS Mojave, Apple worked with both Valve and HTC to support their HTC Vive Pro headset for VR.

This timescale reported by Digitimes is later than previously predicted by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Last month, he reported that production of an AR headset would begin before the end of this year, with a launch in the second quarter of 2020.

Digitimes does not have the greatest reliability in its Apple reporting. Most significantly, it claimed in July that Apple had abandoned its AR Glasses project entirely. This new report admits that wasn't correct, but attributes it to Apple purportedly closing its internal project in favor of this collaboration with Valve.