Apple buys company that makes lenses for AR glasses

Depending on the analyst you believe, Apple's AR powered wearable spectacles, dubbed Apple Glasses, will hit the market in 2020 or 2021. TF International's Ming-Chi Kuo, whose forecasts are so accurate that you'd think he was a fly in Apple CEO Tim Cook's office, is looking for the AR glasses to launch in two years. His counterpart at Loup Ventures, Gene Munster, is calling for a 2021 release of Apple Glasses.

Apple took a big step toward the eventual release of the device when it announced on Wednesday that it had purchased Akonia Holographics. While terms of the acquisition were not announced, the six-year old company focuses on producing displays for augmented reality glasses. The company's website says that its lenses for smartglasses "offer a unique combination of performance, transparency and low cost that will revolutionize the smart glass display industry."

Akonia's site goes on to brag about its head worn displays being the lightest and thinnest in the world, and says the company already has "defined the technology required to achieve future improvements, including even greater field-of-view (FOV) and light efficiency."

While Apple CEO Cook has been a strong believer in the future of AR, last October he said that current technology was not mature enough to support AR glasses. In a statement released yesterday the tech giant said, "Apple buys smaller companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans."

source: Reuters