Apple’s interest in augmented reality (AR) is pretty well known, and the company has expanded on it with the launch of the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and the X. The company has long touted the usefulness of AR, so much so that it has led to rumors that Apple could be working on an AR headset of their own.While Apple has yet to officially confirm their plans, their actions do seem to leave little to the imagination. According to a report from TechCrunch, it appears that Apple has acquired a startup from Montreal, Canada that specializes in AR headsets. Dubbed Vrvana, the company is behind an AR headset called “Totem”, a product which apparently received rave reviews but ultimately failed to ship. The deal, assuming it is accurate, was for $30 million.
It is unclear what Apple wants with Vrvana, but given that the company’s specialty is AR headsets, it feels a little obvious as to what Apple has planned for them, and what they could use their technology for. So far the rumors regarding Apple’s AR headset have suggested that we could see the headset launch in either 2019 or possibly in 2020.
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has touched on the possibility of an AR headset in the past, where he briefly stated that he does not believe that the technology today can achieve the quality that Apple is looking for, and that “Apple will only ship something if it feels it can do it ‘in a quality way’”.
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