Vision Pro Creator Taking Over Siri After Apple Intelligence Setbacks

[Deine Mudda]

Apple is reportedly shaking up its executive ranks, shortly after it delayed the personalized Siri features that it previewed at WWDC last year.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell will be taking over the Siri team at Apple, which until now was led by Apple's artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea. Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently "lost confidence" in Giannandrea's ability to "execute on product development," but he will remain at the company for now to oversee artificial intelligence research and development in general.

Vision Pro hardware engineer Paul Meade will be succeeding Rockwell as the head of Apple's spatial computing efforts, allowing Rockwell to focus entirely on Siri, according to the report. In his new role overseeing the Siri team, Rockwell will report to Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, the report added.

Apple plans to inform employees about the executive shakeup this week, according to the report.

Apple has been facing a lot of criticism after delaying its more personalized version of Siri, with some people upset that the company chose to preview new features that were merely conceptual, rather than fully functional. It is a widely held belief that Apple is lagging behind competitors like OpenAI in the generative artificial intelligence space, and it looks like Apple is attempting to right the ship with this executive shakeup.

Apple appointing Rockwell as its new Siri head is an interesting choice, as the Vision Pro has been described as a "commercial flop" and has faced criticism of its own. Nevertheless, the Vision Pro is certainly a technological feat, so Rockwell has proven experience and could be instrumental in improving Siri's underlying technologies.

Apple said it anticipates rolling out the more personalized Siri "in the coming year."

Even the current version of Siri has attracted a lot of criticism, including from some of the most devoted Apple fans, as it sometimes struggles to answer even the most basic questions. Rockwell certainly has his work cut out for him in his new role.

Article Link: Vision Pro Creator Taking Over Siri After Apple Intelligence Setbacks

For a company like Apple and a person like Tim, this is harsh.

 

[tweaknmod]

As many others have mentioned here, I think this is a problem at the very top, not at the executive level.

Oversimplifying things for a second, there are two approaches to public company success:

1. Appease shareholders and work on the products within their desires
2. Build products which meet the desires and standards of your team, and the investors who align with that vision will come

Apple has been in the first camp for a while. I think it’s time to take the stock ticker hit and move back to the second. The ticker will come up again when it’s re-aligned with the vision that made Apple a household name in the first place.

 

[digimc]

Finally someone with the vision to get Siri back on the right track.

 

[Spock]

Cue the "Vision Pro is a flop" jokes but Mike Rockwell is an incredibly smart dude. This gives me a little hope. A little.

I think the main reason the Vision Pro is not doing so well is the price not the quality of the device or software.

 

[needsomecoffee]

Man o' Man. John G. In charge of Siri for years. Siri is a failure. Apple Intelligence gets roasted by users and press. So Tim thinks, "Let's put John G. in charge of AI." WTF. Also, I completely agree with a previous comment by "idaho..." that Craig is also responsible. Apple's club of older white guys at the top level has got to change imho. Not sure the VP guy is different. Bring back Scott F. who looks to have been royally screwed because of one failure (he did LOTS of good stuff before that unlike John G.)

 

[ticzon]

Due to Apple's recent hiring practices (not merit based), Apple does not hire the best employee in their field. Therefore, we will continue to see Apple coast on the work of Steve Jobs and the iPhone.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I think the main reason the Vision Pro is not doing so well is the price not the quality of the device or software.

It's price and lack of content

The VR headsets moving numbers are being used for gaming --- where AVP is totally absent

Also, you could give them away, and you're still not going to see folks sitting around with scuba masks on in mainstream numbers and usage contexts. There are form factor challenges and barriers to interest here that only better and different technology will solve for.

 

[bluespark]

Maybe not a commercial success. But from a technical standpoint? Yes - it's an absolute success. Have you used one?

Had the Vision Pro been a technology demonstration rather than a shipping product, I think nearly everyone would agree with you. As a product, it was a half-baked mashup of some truly great ideas and slick software with hardware that was heavy, cumbersome, and inelegant. Worse, it (in shipping form, anyway) didn't seem to fit any obvious use-case applicable to most potential customers. It was a Newton.

 

[aParkerMusic]

Very unfair editorializing. To say the features were concept videos is untrue. Recent reports state that the features work, but not reliably. This is not a defense of Apple, just a simple statement of fact.

 

[sleestak]

Original Apple Maps guy declined the opportunity?

I think more than a few folks wouldn’t be opposed to seeing Scott Forstall back in charge of the software side at Apple.

 

[The Doctor11]

Gruber thinks this was not intentionally leaked by PR to Bloomberg. I totally disagree, after the story last week came out about the meeting with the Siri team where they were very empathic to it’d failure I think Tim’s now looking to please the shareholders ASAP. Came up with this plan, leaked it early to ease walls street just to get the word out.

 

[tweaknmod]

I think the main reason the Vision Pro is not doing so well is the price not the quality of the device or software.

Agreed. I see it more of an ‘easily’ accessible, dev kit than a consumer product.

Still super cool though. If I could afford it, I’d have one for sure.

If anyone hasn’t tried one, I strongly encourage you to go try it out at an Apple Store. There are tons of fun.

 

[0049190]

If they haven’t managed to fix Siri after 15 years I don’t see how this will make a difference. It’s time to scrap Siri and start again.

 

[platinumaqua]

For those of us who actually own the Vision Pro it’s a phenomenal success. The hardware is great. The software is great and it’s getting better.

For those who don’t wanna drop $5000 I guess I understand their view that if something is not a mass market success then it must be a failure…

It's ok. I understand. I am an owner of 2 iPhone minis. I know how it's like loving a product that's considered a failure by critics.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Gruber thinks this was not intentionally leaked by PR to Bloomberg. I totally disagree

We'd all be well served to remember that Gruber is "just a guy" ... in this case, one who's been blogging from his home office for 20 years.

There is no special wisdom, knowledge or insight there and I'd argue that Apple has successfully turned him into a PR tool at many times by giving him extra access.

 

[Bug-Creator]

From hardware to leading AI? Seems so random like those politicians moving from a „family minister“ position to the head to the EU.

In both cases the job is 90% leadership and 10% involving deep knowledge of the project.

So was the HW of the VisionPro developed under a "great leadership" or was designed under a fumbling idiot.
That and how much freedom he is getting from Tim Cook is going determine whether he will bring real results.

 

[chrono1081]

Hmm, not optimistic that Siri will change for the better considering Vision Pro hasn't been the glowing success it's said to be.

I can’t fault the team on it, they released a great product that did it far better than its competitors, it’s just that no one wants that product.

 

[chrono1081]

RayBans Meta basically do nothing lmao

Exactly. I was confused on the comparison. People comparing Vision Pro to ar glasses need to see what a Vision Pro actually does.

 

[0049190]

It's price and lack of content

The VR headsets moving numbers are being used for gaming --- where AVP is totally absent

Also, you could give them away, and you're still not going to see folks sitting around with scuba masks on in mainstream numbers and usage contexts. There are form factor challenges and barriers to interest here that only better and different technology will solve for.

Agreed. I’ve tried the VR headsets from Meta and Sony and they made me feel ill. I don’t think I would buy a VisionPro whatever the price was.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Agreed. I’ve tried the VR headsets from Meta and Sony and they made me feel ill. I don’t think I would buy a VisionPro whatever the price was.

Same issue for me ... I tried and tried ..... and really tried to make PSVR2 + Gran Turismo work as it was a cool experience ... It just always made me nauseous before too long.

 

[Supermallet]

I don't get it, Apple's been ahead of the curve. Everyone is just now making terrible AI LLMs that hallucinate and have turned the web into a dead mall of recursively generated slop, but Siri has been crappy for years!

 

[SoldOnApple]

It is funny after he boasted that Apple was years ahead in ML and AI, only to not be able to deliver the AI Siri. Embarrassing.

 

[mattopotamus]

For those of us who actually own the Vision Pro it’s a phenomenal success. The hardware is great. The software is great and it’s getting better.

For those who don’t wanna drop $5000 I guess I understand their view that if something is not a mass market success then it must be a failure…

Similar thoughts here. Yes, it is expensive, but I think everyone that owns or has tried a Vision Pro would agree the software is very clean and nice.

 

[surferfb]

This is off topic, and I don't know if they let you try this at the Apple Store, but the new Metallica video on AVP is amazing - and I don't even like Metallica! If there is any way you can get a hold of one to watch it I'd highly recommend it - especially if you have ever wanted to know what it feels like to be a rock star walking out onto stage in a stadium. There is absolutely a there, there, and I still firmly believe Apple released this so content starts getting made so that by the time they are able to get the tech into a package that is attractive and much cheaper there will be a lot of content to enjoy.

Back on topic, as Gruber said a few days ago, the AVP software is absolutely better than the hardware.

Part of what makes Vision Pro so fascinating is that the software is better than the hardware. The hardware for immersive VR is so early-days that even the industry state-of-the-art — which is Vision Pro — stinks compared to where it’s going to be in even just five years. The 1984 Macintosh was a sh**ty computer with a 9-inch one-bit display, no hard drive, and an absurdly meager 128 kilobytes of RAM. But the software was amazing!

The AVP software is great. I am hopeful that this shake up will result in better results for Siri and Apple Intelligence.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

For those of us who actually own the Vision Pro it’s a phenomenal success. The hardware is great. The software is great and it’s getting better.

For those who don’t wanna drop $5000 I guess I understand their view that if something is not a mass market success then it must be a failure…

The two two people I know that had Vision Pros got bored with it, didn't touch it for months, then sold it.