HTC’s VR ambitions received a boost after it was confirmed the Taiwan-headquartered company’s Vive headset will be compatible with Apple’s new Mac High Sierra operating system (OS).

Apple used the Vive headset in a demonstration at its annual worldwide developer’s conference on 5 June, and the company said in a statement the macOS High Sierra will “add support for VR content creation for the first time”.

The US vendor is working with Valve’s SteamVR platform to optimise content for Mac PCs, and this will enable connection to the HTC Vive headset, which also works in conjunction with the SteamVR system.

Apple’s macOS update is scheduled for availability later this year and the company added: “leading VR companies are joining Apple to drive VR innovation on the Mac with features coming later this year”.

For HTC, which also worked on VR with Intel and Google, adding Apple Mac capability gives it access to more than 100 million Mac users, and significantly boosts the attractiveness of the Vive headset for consumers.