Apple Manufacturing Partner Quanta Strikes Deal With Lumus to Make Lenses for Smart Glasses [Report]

Apple manufacturing partner Quanta has reached a licensing deal with Lumus to make lenses for smart glasses, reports Bloomberg.

Israel-based Lumus designs displays for AR glasses that will project information into the wearer’s field of view. As part of the deal, Quanta will manufacture the lenses for Lumus and then have the option to produce the component for leading consumer technology companies, Lumus Chief Executive Officer Ari Grobman said. Quanta led a $45 million investment in Lumus in late 2016. Several of the largest technology companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., are developing AR hardware.

"This means that the most expensive key enabling technology in the AR glasses teardown will now be affordably priced, effectively bringing down the overall cost of consumer AR glasses," Grobman said in an interview. "Quanta has suggested that full AR headsets would be priced for less than the cost of a high-end cell phone. That’s a big deal.”


Recently, Quanta revealed that it was working on a "headset-like gadget with a fully transparent lens that allows users to see through and interact with the environment." Catcher Technology, another Apple supplier, said it would begin making metal components for augmented reality devices.

The announcements coincide with rumors that Apple is making an augmented-reality headset that will ship as early as 2020. Apple's device reportedly has its own display and runs on a new chip and operating system dubbed 'rOS'. Apple is purportedly investigating touch panels, voice-activation via Siri and head gestures while engineers are prototyping a range of applications, from mapping and texting to virtual meeting rooms and 360-degree video playback.

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