Apple is said to have recently considered purchasing British company Plessey Semiconductors, a maker of Micro-LED display for augmented reality devices.
The report claims that Plessey has instead reached a licensing deal with Facebook, which in a statement said it wants to build “a glasses form factor that lets devices melt away so we can be more present with our friends, families, and surroundings”:
Facebook has struck a deal to buy all of the augmented reality displays made by British firm Plessey, as the social network looks to build AR glasses capable of overlaying virtual objects onto the real world. The deal could give Facebook an edge over Apple, which recently looked at buying Plessey, one of the few makers of AR displays, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Apple has expressed an interest in augmented reality development in recent years. The company has created frameworks like ARKit and RealityKit as well as creative tools like Reality Composer and Reality Converter, and hardware like the LiDAR Scanner on the new iPad Pro and likely some iPhone 12 models.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via MacRumors and The Information