In a press release, Apple revealed it would grant $410 million to II-VI, a leading manufacturer of optical technology. CEO Tim Cook tweeted that this helps power the latter, including FaceID, Memoji, and Portrait mode formerly important features.
The investment Apple has extended to II-VI (pronounced “two-six”) would ‘develop capability and speed up delivery of future iPhone components,” Apple said in a press release.
The company originally donated the Advanced Manufacturing Fund to II-VI for $390 million in 2017. In all, Apple has given the technology manufacturer a total of $900 million.
In addition, the initial payment paved the way for a renovation in a high-tech production facility of the long-shuttered site.
An additional 700 manufacturing jobs will be generated in Sherman, Texas; Warren, New Jersey; Easton, Pennsylvania; and Champaign, Illinois via Apple’s investment.
Apple’s Clean Energy Program also includes II-VI. In the production industry, the firm also uses 100 percent renewable energy.
Read More: iPhone 13 features: Expectations from Apple’s next-gen smartphone family
Augmented Reality is “Critically” Important to Apple
In addition, this advancement gives Apple the possibility of retaining FaceID, The Verge reports. II-VI supplies the vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers of the mentioned feature.
The report adds that Apple’s ongoing partnership with II-VI could propel the future in both increased and virtual reality.
Cook said, via New York Times, that for the company’s future, AR is “critically” significant. The CEO also said he imagined that AR will be used in important things in our lives, such as fitness, training, retail and gaming.
In addition, II-VI CEO Vincent Mattera Jr. said that the collaboration is ‘the stage of a new technology breakthrough that we think will allow the world to benefit from a wide variety of applications over the next few decades.’
Apple’s Future with AR
There have been reports of a Time-of-Flight sensor on an iPhone 13. The Portrait Mode feature could be further supplemented by the sensor supplied by II-VI.
Apple has recently received a patent in conjunction with AR and thermal technology. Any surface touchscreen should be produced. Anything you might expect, actually!
The business Cupertino is also rumored to be launching two AR headsets, Bloomberg reported. The future products will be referred to as N421 and N301.
The N421 should be the lightweight Apple AR Glasses.
On the other side, N301 would be a high-resolution film speaker device.
A spatial audio element in the HomePod style is said to provide all rumored gadgets with a realistic AR experience.
In addition, AR is still going up to iPhone 14 in Apple’s future, Ming-Chi Kuo, an Analyst from Apple claimed. Leak also adds that the 8K video capture of the future smartphone is supplemented by the AR.
