Apple CEO Tim Cook is the most likely to confirm recently that Apple is making headphones.

Cook was tell in a recent interview with China Daily USA what he thought were the key factors behind the success of augmented reality, or AR, in the consumer market.

"I'm excited about AR, as you know. And the core of any technology, including AR, is putting humanity first," he said, echoing earlier comments about how important AR is to companies.

He then detailed Apple's previous work in space, focusing on AR apps on the iPhone also iPad, before adding, "But I think we're still in the early stages of how this technology will develop." I'm excited about the opportunities we've seen in this space and look forward to seeing what we offer."

AR or "Mixed Reality" describes a technology that overlays a computer-generated image with a real-world scene, unlike virtual reality or VR, which completely immerses the viewer in a computer-generated world.

This is one of the clearest of Cook admitting that Apple had something more significant to do. While current apps can be helpful for things like room allocation or checking if new furniture will fit, Apple seems to have built a library and developer tools to build more apps for something like headphones.

In May, Bloomberg said Apple recently launched AR/VR headphones at Apple and that the company plans to announce them later this year, though they could sneak in next year. According to the same report, Apple plans to sell the headset in 2023.

Apple is set to go after several other major tech companies, most notably Meta, which changed its name from Facebook last year to mark its revamped focus on immersing consumers in a virtual world known as the "meta-universe," and Microsoft, the Hololens AR glasses first introduced in 2017. 2016