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Apple reportedly starts a virtual reality team

Virtual reality may very well be in Apple's future. The Financial Times reports that Apple is assembling a virtual reality team to build headsets that could stand in direct competition with the likes of the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift and Microsoft's Hololens.

Apple's secretive research team reportedly includes individuals poached from companies like Microsoft, where they were working on similar devices.

The news comes after Apple CEO Tim Cook suggested virtual reality could play a big role in the future, CNET reports.

Apple's Tim Cook talks tech and privacy with 60 Minutes 02:14

"I don't think it's a niche," Cook said of virtual reality technology during a conference call when the company's earnings report was released last week. "It's really cool. It has some interesting applications."

This isn't the first inkling that Apple was assembling a team of virtual reality specialists. Late last month, the Financial Times reported that the tech giant hired Virginia Tech professor Doug Bowman, who is a leading virtual reality researcher.

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