Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has reportedly sided with the company’s operations chief Jeff Williams in pushing for the launch of a first-generation mixed-reality headset this year, going against the wishes of the company’s design team. According to the Financial Times, the launch timing of the mixed-reality headset has been a contentious issue within Apple, with the design team advising that devices in this category were not yet ready for launch and wanted to delay until a lightweight AR glasses product had matured several years later. However, the 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.
The headset has reportedly been in active development for seven years, and Apple is still expecting to sell only around a million units during its first year on sale at a ~$3,000 price point. Nevertheless, the company is said to be preparing a “marketing blitz” for the product later this year.
Upon the departure of design chief Jony Ive in 2019, Apple’s design team now reports directly to Williams. While design previously 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.
The mixed-reality headset is seen as being tied directly to Tim Cook’s legacy, as Apple’s first new computing platform developed entirely under his leadership. While the design team’s caution may have delayed the product’s launch, Cook and Williams believe that the headset’s early release will give Apple a foothold in a market that is expected to become increasingly important in the coming years.
