Apple could reveal an augmented reality (AR) headset sooner than expected, as there are reports that its supply chain partners are gearing up to create products linked to Cupertino.

In its latest financial results, Catcher Technology, a maker of laptop chassis and an Apple supplier, revealed it will be making a product line for a company that falls outside its existing trio of product categories.

This has market watchers, fired up on speculation that such a new product could be an AR headset, due to Catcher’s link to Apple and Cupertino’s growing interest in AR technology.

Apple already has its ARKit software development platform, so there’s a good chance it could segue into hardware as well.

These speculations are further fuelled by the work another Apple supplier, Quanta Computer, has been doing in the field of AR head-mounted display development. Quanta Computer recently received licenses from Lumus, an Israeli AR optical component developer, to create camera lenses that use Lumus tech.

So all this paints a rather promising picture that Apple could indeed be developing its own AR headset, which would likely stand apart from the virtual reality orientated and smartphone powered headsets like Samsung’s Gear VR and Google’s Daydream.

Whether an Apple AR headset will be a self-contained unit or something that makes use of the A11 Bionic chip in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, will have to be seen.

And there’s a chance that Apple isn’t actually working on any AR hardware and that such market speculation is incorrect, though we’d be surprised if Apple hasn’t at least been testing AR hardware in secret.

Source: trustedreviews