Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Longtime Apple Executive Dan Riccio Retiring Later This Month

Dan Riccio: Riccio is Rockwell’s boss and the conduit between the Technology Development Group and Apple’s top executive team. He has worked exclusively on the headset over the past two years, following a stint as Apple’s hardware engineering chief. He’s likely to retire not too long after the headset’s release, and some involved in the development believe Riccio sees this as a legacy-defining product. He previously oversaw two other products — a full TV set and a car — that were either canceled or delayed.

www.bloomberg.com

Apple’s Key Decision-Makers Behind the New Mixed-Reality Headset

Apple is just a few weeks away from debuting its mixed-reality headset. This past week, I gave an in-depth look at the device’s development and features. Now, here’s a list of the key people involved in the project. Also: Apple pivots to clothing and details iOS 17’s new accessibility features...
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com
 
  • Like
Reactions: EedyBeedyBeeps, dabotsonline, BeatsBeats and 2 others
CWallace said:
Considering he got the Vision Pro out the door and it is (currently) the most advanced consumer VR and AR product on sale, why fire him?

It is not like he personally decided it should sell for $3500 nor was he in charge of the (lack of) marketing and promotion for it. That falls on Cook and Joswiak as CEO and SVP of Worldwide Marketing, respectively.

Clearly, he either is looking for new challenges or he is ready to retire and enjoy his money.
Click to expand...

They didn't fire him. He wanted to retire in 2021 and like Bob Mansfield got handed lots of stock options to stay and work on "future projects."
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline, System603, CWallace and 1 other person
CWallace said:
It is not like he personally decided it should sell for $3500 nor was he in charge of the (lack of) marketing and promotion for it. That falls on Cook and Joswiak as CEO and SVP of Worldwide Marketing, respectively.

Clearly, he either is looking for new challenges or he is ready to retire and enjoy his money.
Click to expand...

Schiller (App Store) and most importantly Federighi too. Federighi allegedly didn't want to devote anymore software resources to it. VisionOS shipped half baked with little to no developer support from Apple.

An abomination of a 1.0 operating system. When is the last time Apple shipped an OS with dead icons that said "coming soon"?

Even in 2.0, half the system apps are just iPad versions.

Embarrassing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tim Apple’s Glasses, Dj64Mk7, BeatsBeats and 2 others
jaw04005 said:
"Riccio led the Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, HomePod, AirPods, and Apple Watch engineering teams, which have produced numerous products."

He also was the in charge of the hardware team that made the original iPad under Steve Jobs.

I think his track record speaks for itself. Well deserved retirement.
Click to expand...
Does that mean he was also responsible for the Butterfly Keyboard Buttfly Kyboad and Touch Bar? If so, add 2 more fails to the list.

HomePod... you mean the product Apple cancelled due to "lackluster sales"?

www.macrumors.com

Apple Discontinues Full-Sized HomePod to Focus on HomePod Mini

Apple has discontinued the standard HomePod to focus exclusively on the HomePod mini, reports TechCrunch. First introduced four years ago,...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com

www.macrumors.com

HomePod Estimated to Have Just 4% Market Share Worldwide Despite 45% Sales Growth Last Quarter

HomePod shipments totaled 1.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2018, a 45 percent increase on a year-over-year basis, according to Strategy...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com


Was he also responsible for the borked HomePods?

That's what... 6 bad product ideas now?
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: dabotsonline, antonrg, jaw04005 and 2 others
All below have done a good job to get Apple to this point, but some MUST retire. Retire == walk away with no more influence whatsoever.

Eddie **
Craig (yes sorry)
Joz
John G. ***

Sorry Tim, they are your friends, part of "the club", and are experienced, guys. But long past time for them to go. They are all really rich, so no issues for them. Apple needs new blood, new ideas, so no issues for consumers.

** He has gotta have some photos of someone
*** It does not matter how much you underperform if they think you are hot s**t (and you came from the big G.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline, System603, ksec and 1 other person
needsomecoffee said:
All below have done a good job to get Apple to this point, but some MUST retire. Retire == walk away with no more influence whatsoever.

Eddie **
Craig (yes sorry)
Joz
John G. ***

Sorry Tim, they are your friends, part of "the club", and are experienced, guys. But long past time for them to go. They are all really rich, so no issues for them. Apple needs new blood, new ideas, so no issues for consumers.

** He has gotta have some photos of someone
*** It does not matter how much you underperform if they think you are hot s**t (and you came from the big G.)
Click to expand...
Tim should be #1 on that list.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ThailandToo
djinn said:
The question I have is, is that real hair on the top of his head? Sure looks kind of funny.
Click to expand...

Anyone at 61 is lucky to have full set of hair or being able to afford hair therapy/transplant.

Didn't make any business sense to chase a dead VR/AR market but guess what Tim Cook wants is what he gets at the expense of someone else's retirement. Imagine retiring on a failed product with no second chance redemption.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
CWallace said:
Considering he got the Vision Pro out the door and it is (currently) the most advanced consumer VR and AR product on sale, why fire him?

It is not like he personally decided it should sell for $3500 nor was he in charge of the (lack of) marketing and promotion for it. That falls on Cook and Joswiak as CEO and SVP of Worldwide Marketing, respectively.

Clearly, he either is looking for new challenges or he is ready to retire and enjoy his money.
Click to expand...
I would retire rather than work for Tim’s Apple. At least Tim made them all wealthy! But the rest of us and Apple’s future got the shaft.
 
Guess Steve Jobs poached him from Compaq to come work at Apple in 1998. Steve was interim CEO at the time of his hire, he would’ve signed off on him. He’s been here since Jobs changed Apple.
 
People using this as a proxy to bemoan the Vision Pro and call him a failure are just out of touch. He’s been in the industry for about 40 years, with ten of those as an engineer at DEC. Dude’s a legend.

Nobody bats an eye at a $3,000 MacBook Pro or a Pro Display XDR, but everyone criticizes the Vision Pro. The reason for this is that a regular Mac gives you a great experience of the entire Mac platform. The Vision Pro is the first time a platform has been prohibitively expensive since the very early computers of late 70’s / early 80’s. Maybe the iPhone, but it was largely subsidized by ATT (and still is). Whereas it’s easy to imagine what using a Pro Display XDR is like, or hell, what driving a Lamborghini is like, it’s basically impossible to imagine what using a Vision Pro is like until you actually do. That’s where a lot of this angst is coming from.

The margins on Vision Pro are commensurate with the industry. It’s a really hard product to make with expensive components (the displays are $700, compared to about $30 for quest). It’s DEFINITELY a beta product and not for everyone. In fact, it’s pretty average. But it’s not a failure. And while Apple is continually misguided and seemingly tonedeaf on a lot of things, the Vision Pro just isn’t the best example of that by a long shot (though the $200 light seals might take the cake, admittedly).
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: CWallace, dabotsonline, bgillander and 2 others
"Retirement"? We know how Apple works, and he is clearly being let go for the Vision Pro failure. No mention of fellow in this "Retirement"...

It would be great to see companies be 100% honest, rather than play word trickery for the beholden stake and shareholders. Just say he was tapped on the shoulder and told your time is up.
 
If anyone is curious why these departures take place in October, it has to do with the vesting of restricted stock units (RSUs) and stock options. The biggest chunks of these assets transfer to employee control around mid-late October of each year. These departures take place throughout the company, not just at the C-level.

A similar (but smaller) exodus generally takes place in mid-late April.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mike_Trivisonno and dabotsonline
jaw04005 said:
There's been some Reddit chatter that Ternus is not a fan of AVP. So, this will be interesting.

I don't consider the hardware the problem. It's the pricing, marketing and lack of software support (and I blame that solely on Apple, not iOS developers).
Click to expand...
Too heavy, chunky external battery, makes people feel sick…etc… you think it’s not the hardware?
Also the ridiculous price… I’m sure there would be more people developing software if people were actually buying the thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
AndiG said:
I have the strong feeling that the longer the people work for Apple the more they start looking kind of Apple-ish. But maybe this is just a terrible photo.
Click to expand...
So, you mean he’s thinner now than he was before?
 
SmugMaverick said:
Time to go buddy, let’s clear out these polo shirt, beige chino wearing boring old greedy men who’ve coasted the last 7 years.

What a failure

Car, vision, air power ffs

Maybe now they’ll put vision teams back on iPhone and iOS and fix this garbage.
Click to expand...
smug in****ingdeed. what did you do the last 7 years mr man?
 
  • Like
Reactions: bgillander and Thymio
So many layers of approvals and internal politics now to get things done and our the door, really not a surprise that innovation takes a long time to see the light of day, a lot longer than peak Jobs era.

It'd be interesting to see how many are there in senior positions still from peak Jobs era.
That said, I probably wouldn't have lasted more then 15 years, if granted Apple stock and options as climbing the ladder....retire early and enjoy the money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
mi7chy said:
Anyone at 61 is lucky to have full set of hair or being able to afford hair therapy/transplant.

Didn't make any business sense to chase a dead VR/AR market but guess what Tim Cook wants is what he gets at the expense of someone else's retirement. Imagine retiring on a failed product with no second chance redemption.
Click to expand...

I'm 55 and recently spent four months in the hospital after a fairly radical fasciotomy on mmy lower right leg (they cut off all the muscles, in layman's terms) after a deep vein thrombosis incident. I had a beautiful, thick head of hair going in, but upon exit I am nearly bald on top. Life comes at you fast.

By the way, the operations I endured after the DVTs were hellish — literally. I have very few memories from the hospital because the first six weeks out of 16 I was insane. Avoid DVTs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back