Apple Working with Valve on AR Smartglasses, Report Says

Rumors are what Apple dreams are made, so most of the time it's best to ignore the juicy ones -- but some Apple rumors demand a least a little attention.

Such is the case with the latest tantalizing breadcrumb that claims that the Cupertino, California-based company is working one of the biggest VR gaming specialists on the planet to help it bring its augmented reality device to market.

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Ironically, the rumor originates from DigiTimes, the same Taiwan-based outlet that earlier this year claimed that Apple had 'stopped' developing AR smartglasses (a claim that some took as shaky, at best).

Now, in a new report, the site claims that Apple is working with Valve to "develop AR head-mounted display devices, which may be released in the second half of 2020 at the earliest."

If true, the pairing would make sense, as Valve has been at the forefront of the growing VR space as a partner with HTC to develop the HTC Vive headset. Valve is also the company behind the Steam game store, which is one of the primary sources for VR software titles across a wide range of VR headsets. In the last year, the company also introduced its own Valve Index VR headset to serve the needs of more dedicated VR gamers.

The report goes on to claim that Taiwanese original design manufacturers (ODMs) Pegatron and Quanta Computer are also slated to work on the wearable device.

In addition to this new report, back in October, historically reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo doubled down on his claim that Apple smartglasses are coming soon.

So now, it appears that like the long-rumored Apple Watch before it, all signals point to Apple AR smartglasses being very real, very much in production, and coming to consumer's faces sooner than many had anticipated.

Cover image via Taeyeon Kim/Behance