A few weeks ago, Apple announced that Dan Riccio, head of hardware engineering, would retire from his role and focus entirely on a ‘new project’ in the business. According to another Bloomberg report based on sources with knowledge of Apple’s plans today, the project that Riccio focused his energy on has on Apple’s upcoming headset with augmented reality, virtual reality or mixed reality.
The development of an AR headset at Apple seems to have taken a hit or two under Mike Rockwell, the current project leader, although the report does not set out exactly what obstacles arose. While Rockwell will continue the day-to-day work on the project, Riccio will have ‘ultimate oversight’ over the company’s AR / VR efforts, which allegedly involve ‘more than a thousand engineers’.
Riccio has already handed over the top management of most current consumer products such as the iPhone to a driver named John Ternus. Apple has announced that it will replace Ternus Riccio as head of hardware engineering. The latest news indicates that he also led the development of new camera and display technology to Johny Srouji, the CEO, who headed the design and engineering of Apple Silicon.
Apple is apparently working to do the same with displays as with processors: the development of high-quality proprietary components that will be replaced by Apple purchased from other vendors such as LG or Samsung.
But despite these other moving parts, AR is a top priority when it comes to new product development. Apple CEO Tim Cook said earlier that he believed AR could have the potential to be a watershed moment similar to the iPhone for Apple, and an expected rivalry with Facebook in space was an undercurrent of the recent feud over privacy between the two technology giants.
Last week, The Information quoted several sources close to Apple as claiming that Apple is working on an ultra-high 8K VR headset that could cost $ 3,000. To date, most of Apple’s publicly visible work on XR has been on AR, not on VR. Cupertino is constantly developing ARKit, a developer API that can create AR experiences using the cameras and sensors on iPhones and iPads.
Apple sometimes even talked about VR. While Cook says he believes AR is the more transformative technology, there were developer talks and documents supporting VR in the company’s Metal graphics API, and the company worked with Valve to support SteamVR headsets at Mac’s. to add around the launch of the iMac Pro. .
It’s too early to say what Apple’s first headset might be. Although The Information calls it a VR headset, it also supports high quality recording of the surrounding world and showing it to the user, so AR is probably still a part of the plan. It is possible that Apple will rely to some extent on the development of its SteamVR support, as it builds tools for developers to create VR experiences as well, and it is also possible that these expensive headphones are primarily intended for use by developers and professional persons.
Either way, Riccio is now in charge of future XR projects from the lab and into user homes. The report on the VR headset said that we might see the first model in 2022.