A new report from Nikkei Asia today claims that Apple has tapped a Chinese company (Luxshare) to help develop its long-awaited augmented reality glasses.
The newspaper notes that the American tech giant, known for making iPhones, has chosen a Chinese supplier to develop a first-generation product for the first time.
And (Nikki Asia) quoted five people familiar with the matter as saying that (LuxShare) acquired a team in Shanghai to develop augmented reality technology that was previously owned by a Taiwanese company (Pegatron).
The participation of (Luxshare Precision) in the development of new Apple products is considered an achievement by Chinese technology vendors, as Apple has relied on Taiwanese vendors such as (Foxconn) to develop its new products over the past few decades.
The newspaper quoted four people familiar with the matter as saying that Luxshare Precision hopes to do business with Apple in as many areas as possible, especially after it seems that it will become the main supplier of the American company in China for many years. iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods.
Nikkei Asia also quoted its sources as saying that Fexcon is also contributing to the augmented reality project, and the Taiwanese company's former iPhone aggregator will develop second-generation augmented reality glasses, which will be cheaper.
The newspaper said that Apple is trying to take advantage of its supply chain to make the augmented reality glasses it is developing successful, quoting its sources as saying that two of Apple's main suppliers, the Taiwanese company TSMC and the Japanese company Sony, are developing small OLED screens. for glasses.
According to a (Nikkei Asia) report, Apple could offer the following augmented reality glasses for between $3,000 and $5,000, especially since the small OLED screens originally used in military glasses are very expensive because the screens are about $150 per pair. Glasses require two screens. In addition, the other parts of the glasses also have costs associated with them.
An executive familiar with the developments told the newspaper: “The first generation of augmented reality devices from Apple will be very expensive and will probably only attract tech geeks or wealthy customers. High-end Mac computers are hoping to attract a large user base.”
Remarkably, this report (Nikkei Asia) comes a week after Bloomberg announced that Apple plans to display mixed reality glasses at its annual developer conference, WWDC 2023.
It was reported that Apple has postponed the launch of the glasses from April next year to June next year, and they will be on the market by the end of this year.
For years, there have been rumors that the company best known for making the iPhone and many other consumer products was looking to enter the virtual and augmented reality market.
The company's next product is believed to be a strong competitor to Sony's virtual reality glasses and Meta, which has been focused on building a digital universe called the Metaverse for quite some time.