Report: Apple CEO Tim Cook Ordered Headset Launch Despite Designers Wanting to Wait for AR Glasses

[MacRumors]

Apple CEO Tim Cook sided with operations chief Jeff Williams in pushing to launch a first-generation mixed-reality headset device this year, against the wishes of the company's design team, the Financial Times reports.

Apple headset concept by David Lewis and Marcus Kane​

The timing of the mixed-reality headset's launch has apparently been a cause of considerable contention at Apple. The company's industrial design team cautioned that devices in the category were not yet ready for launch and wanted to delay until a lightweight AR glasses product had matured several years later. On the other hand, Apple's operations team wanted to ship an early version of the product in the form of a VR-focused ski goggle-like headset that allows users to watch 3D videos, perform interactive workouts, or make FaceTime calls with virtual avatars.

Tim Cook, who served as Apple's operations chief prior to becoming CEO, reportedly sided with Jeff Williams, overruling objections from Apple's designers and pressing for an early launch with a more limited product. Speaking to the Financial Times, former Apple engineers who worked on the device described the "huge pressure to ship."

Upon the departure of design chief Jony Ive in 2019, Apple's design team now reports directly to Williams. While design led the direction of Apple's products under Steve Jobs, employees have noticed that operations is increasingly taking control over product development under Cook's leadership. One former engineer said that the best part of working at Apple was devising engineering solutions to meet the "insane requirements" of the design team, but that has apparently changed in recent years.

Apple's headset has reportedly been in active development for seven years, twice as long as the original iPhone prior to its launch. The device is seen as being tied directly to Tim Cook's legacy, as Apple's first new computing platform developed entirely under his leadership.

The company is still expecting to sell only around a million units of the headset during its first year on sale at a ~$3,000 price point. Nevertheless, Apple is purportedly preparing a "marketing blitz" for the product later this year.

Update: The headline on this article has been updated to clarify that Apple's designers reportedly preferred to wait for technology to advance sufficiently to release slimmer AR glasses rather than a bulkier headset, not that the headset itself is being released prematurely.

Article Link: Report: Apple CEO Tim Cook Ordered Headset Launch Despite Designers Wanting to Wait for AR Glasses

 

[goobot]

The headset is seemingly tied directly to Tim Cook's legacy, being Apple's first new computing platform developed entirely under his leadership. Apple's headset has reportedly been in active development for seven years

Apple Watch?

 

[Bogstandard]

Imo, this is why Apples' products seem to be more bug ridden.
Politics... Apple management is becoming disconnected from the engineering teams.
Now there's 40 million more reasons to get the stuff to market asap, lol.

 

[Wanted797]

Apple Watch?

Nope. The concept and idea was started before Steve passed away.

 

[Wanted797]

I’ll just leave this here

 

[DMG35]

Sounds like this is going to be an ultra smooth launch with little to no bugs...

 

[RWI]

Who is gonna want this thing? I mean c'mon there are already some of these from other companies and that isn't a big market.
I asked on a birthday party yesterday and no one sees the point in using this thing.

 

[robinp]

This doesn’t bode well. And seems probably linked to Evans Hankey leaving

 

[JPack]

Cook's pay this year is estimated to be only $50 million compared to $100 million in 2022. He might be getting itchy.

 

[dumastudetto]

I trust Apple to make all the right decisions about when the time is right to ship new products.

They've clearly invested a huge amount of time and money into this exciting new product, and I can't wait to place my pre-order for day one arrival.

We mustn't undermine Apple or the products it is working to bring us.

 

[d686546s]

I'm prepared to eat my hat if I'm wrong and plenty of people thought the smartphone in general was a product nobody needed, but I just don't see a clear use case for a product like this -- at least not from Apple and not in the consumer space.

• Immersive gaming is probably a big one, but Apple has never been a gaming platform for these kinds of games.
• Everyday AR might be neat, but not with ski goggles.
• Immersive FaceTime with long-distance partners, family or friends I can see, but the price will be too steep just for that.

That leaves all sorts of business and professional use cases. Frankly I don't know enough about that so I'm not going to make stuff up, but there does not appear to be great traction for others already in the market.

So who is this product really for?

 

[gluckett]

I'm prepared to eat my hat if I'm wrong and plenty of people thought the smartphone in general was a product nobody needed, but I just don't see a clear use case for a product like this -- at least not from Apple and not in the consumer space.

• Immersive gaming is probably a big one, but Apple has never been a gaming platform for these kinds of games.
• Everyday AR might be neat, but not with ski goggles.
• Immersive FaceTime with long-distance partners, family or friends I can see, but the price will be too steep just for that.

That leaves all sorts of business and professional use cases. Frankly I don't know enough about that so I'm not going to make stuff up, but there does not appear to be great traction for others already in the market.

So who is this product really for?

Tim

 

[d5aqoëp]

Everyone and their dog has already guessed that that this VR carp Apple, Meta, Google and everyone else is pushing will go 3D TV way very soon and might have limited uses under limited scenarios. A Dystopian reality like Steven Speilberg’s “Ready Player One” looks practical on TV screens and Cinema Halls only.

 

[dumastudetto]

Everyone and their dog has already guessed that that this VR carp Apple, Meta, Google and everyone else is pushing will go 3D TV way very soon and might have limited uses under limited scenarios. A Dystopian reality like Steven Speilberg’s “Ready Player One” looks practical on TV screens and Cinema Halls only.

We shouldn't judge this until Apple enters the space.

Apple has completely changed the game almost every time they enter a new product category with a perfectly refined device and cohesive user experience.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

“Insane requirements” is not good. You can easily over-design anything with a never ending “tweaking” of the product. 7 years is long enough. That’s a good CEO knowing when the product is ready. Can’t wait to see what they have.

 

[karranz]

Apple sided with operations a long time ago when they let Jony Ive leave. Obviously designing a new product is much more difficult than to release incremental upgrades which is what apple is doing since iPhone 11.

 

[DMG35]

We shouldn't judge this until Apple enters the space.

Apple has completely changed the game almost every time they enter a new product category with a perfectly refined device and cohesive user experience.

That's a little bit of a stretch. Apple has had plenty of misses. I love their stuff and they've hit some grand slams, but they've had some products that have failed in the past. Its also not like they are regularly entering new product space. They've played it relatively safe over the past several years and have stuck to their wheelhouse: Phone, Mac, Watch.

The last time they entered a new product space was with the original HomePod, which was a flop.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

Who is gonna want this thing? I mean c'mon there are already some of these from other companies and that isn't a big market.
I asked on a birthday party yesterday and no one sees the point in using this thing.

Said the same things about the iPhone in late 2006. “No one wants this thing I just want a phone” I think I even read someone said they overheard similar stuff at a birthday party too in Dec 2006.

 

[dumastudetto]

That's a little bit of a stretch. Apple has had plenty of misses. I love their stuff and they've hit some grand slams, but they've had some products that have failed in the past. Its also not like they are regularly entering new product space. They've played it relatively safe over the past several years and have stuck to their wheelhouse: Phone, Mac, Watch.

The last time they entered a new product space was with the original HomePod, which was a flop.

HomePod isn't a flop. It's still around now with new hardware and new hardware revisions in the works.

What are the other "plenty of misses" you have in mind?

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

I'm prepared to eat my hat if I'm wrong and plenty of people thought the smartphone in general was a product nobody needed, but I just don't see a clear use case for a product like this -- at least not from Apple and not in the consumer space.

• Immersive gaming is probably a big one, but Apple has never been a gaming platform for these kinds of games.
• Everyday AR might be neat, but not with ski goggles.
• Immersive FaceTime with long-distance partners, family or friends I can see, but the price will be too steep just for that.

That leaves all sorts of business and professional use cases. Frankly I don't know enough about that so I'm not going to make stuff up, but there does not appear to be great traction for others already in the market.

So who is this product really for?

You’re definitely right in one thing. They said the exact same things about iphone.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

VR makes for an amazing gaming experience (if partnered with a real GPU) but I honestly don't believe it's anywhere near ready for mainstream adoption. Look at the recent launch of PSVR 2, by all accounts the hardware is fantastic but even Sony have shown very little interest in promoting it knowing how few units they will sell.

They're simply too expensive, too bulky, and require a current gen console or mid-range PC to power them for serious gaming. Apple could make a throwaway low-end novelty headset like Meta do, but I can't imagine Cook really finds that appealing.

 

[contacos]

I feel like Apple has lost its touch with „state of the art“ design when it comes to tech in recent years and that’s what made them big again in the first place. Will be interesting to see where we are in 5+ years from now. Lately their devices don’t really stand out anymore. „Just another tech“ you know what I mean?

 

[Kazgarth]

Meta is shipping millions of Quest VR headset each year (consistently the best seller tech on Amazon during holidays).

Apple has to release something into the VR market or the head start gonna get even tougher.

 

[robinp]

“Insane requirements” is not good. You can easily over-design anything with a never ending “tweaking” of the product. 7 years is long enough. Can’t wait to see what they have.

I think the point was that the ‘insane requirements’ was the apple of old. It wasn’t about ‘over designing’. It was about having high aspirations. Perhaps almost impossible to achieve.

Sometimes more time isn’t the answer. Sometimes, the concept just isn’t right. Perhaps in this case they’ve been flogging a dead horse.

Or perhaps the real game changer needs technology that simply doesn’t exist yet. Eg, AR glasses that look like normal glasses are clearly at least a few years off.

It seems pressure to ship anything became so great they’ve decided to just go with whatever they’ve got. That doesn’t seem very Apple like.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

That's a little bit of a stretch. Apple has had plenty of misses. I love their stuff and they've hit some grand slams, but they've had some products that have failed in the past. Its also not like they are regularly entering new product space. They've played it relatively safe over the past several years and have stuck to their wheelhouse: Phone, Mac, Watch.

The last time they entered a new product space was with the original HomePod, which was a flop.

HomePod is the only Apple product mentioned as an Apple failure product in the last 20 years. It’s always HP. Meanwhile HomePod is back and now leading the way with HP mini