Apple hardware chief Dan Riccio resigned to focus on AR / VR

A few weeks ago, Apple announced that longtime head of hardware engineering Dan Riccio would be stepping down to focus entirely on a “new project” within the company. According to another Bloomberg report based on sources familiar with Apple’s plans today, the project Riccio has focused his energies on is Apple’s next augmented reality, virtual reality or mixed reality headset.

The development of an AR headset at Apple appears to have run into a problem or two under current project manager Mike Rockwell, although the report doesn’t say exactly what obstacles have arisen. While Rockwell will remain in charge of the day-to-day work on the project, Riccio will have “ultimate oversight” over the company’s AR / VR efforts, which would involve “well over a thousand engineers”.

Riccio had previously entrusted high-level management of most current consumer products like the iPhone to an executive named John Ternus. Apple has announced that Ternus will replace Riccio as head of global hardware engineering. The latest news indicates that he has also entrusted the development of the new camera and display technology to Johny Srouji, the executive who led the design and engineering of Apple Silicon.

Apple would work on doing the same with screens as it does with processors: developing its own high-quality components that would replace those Apple buys from other vendors like LG or Samsung.

But despite these other moving parts, AR is a top priority in terms of new product development. Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously said he believes AR may be an iPhone-like turning point for Apple, and an expected rivalry with Facebook in that space has been an undercurrent of the recent privacy dispute between the two tech giants.

Last week, The Information cited several sources close to Apple to say that Apple is working on an ultra-high-end 8K VR headset that could cost $ 3,000. To date, most of Apple’s publicly visible work on XR has been on AR, not VR. Cupertino has regularly developed ARKit, a developer API that enables the creation of AR experiences using cameras and sensors on iPhones and iPads.

Apple has also spoken occasionally about virtual reality. While Cook says he thinks AR is the most transformative technology, there have been discussions and documents with the developers about VR support in the company’s Metal Graphics API, and the company worked with Valve to add support for SteamVR headsets to Macs around the launch of the iMac Pro. .

It’s too early to tell what Apple’s first headset might look like. Although The Information calls it a VR headset, it also supports high-quality recording of the surrounding world and shows it to the user, so AR is probably still part of the plan. It’s possible that Apple may be building on some evolution of its SteamVR support by developing tools that allow developers to create VR experiences as well, and it’s also possible that this high-priced headset will be primarily intended for use by retailers. developers and professionals.

In any case, Riccio is now in charge of getting future XR projects out of the laboratory and returning them to users. The VR headset report says we might see this first model in 2022.