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Report: Tim Cook and Jeff Williams push forward with AR/VR headset launch this year, design team wanted to hold off

Eddie-Griffin

Cancer the womens baby so we can pregnant the panda, we are looking for igloos tonight Are you sexy?
https://9to5mac.com/2023/03/12/operations-headset-launch/
All reports point to Apple launching its mixed reality headset — an augmented reality and virtual reality capable device — this year, likely at WWDC in June. But the Financial Times this weekend notes that the decision to ship now has been divisive inside the company.

The report says that operations team led by Jeff Williams wanted to ship a technologically-advanced headset as soon as possible, even if the device would be bulky and expensive. Members of the design team disagreed, wanting to wait until lightweight AR glasses product was feasible. Cook backed operations.


Although the idea of thin and light AR glasses sounds appealing, it is technologically impractical today and may still be for several more years. (Apple is reportedly working on a glasses project as a long-term goal, although several generations of headset will ship before it comes to fruition.)

The choice of timing is critical. According to the report, Cook and Williams acknowledge the state of the market and believe it makes sense to enter the fray now, even if the first-generation headset will be expensive and of limited appeal to consumers. The idea is to iterate and improve over time.
The first-generation headset is believed to be expensive (priced around $3000) due to the state-of-the-art technology being included like dual 4K OLED displays and advanced eye-and-hand-tracking sensors. The device is also believed to be relatively bulky and have short battery life; able to last about 2 hours per session. The company expects to sell about a million units in the first year.

The Financial Times report frames this as an operations versus design group divide:

Apple’s operations team wanted to ship a “version one” product, a ski goggle-like headset that will allow users to watch immersive 3D video, perform interactive workouts or chat with realistic avatars through a revamped FaceTime. But Apple’s famed industrial design team had cautioned patience, wanting to delay until a more lightweight version of AR glasses became technically feasible. Most in the tech industry expect that to take several more years.
Under Apple’s structure of ten years ago, Steve Jobs and the design team drove almost all decisions. Operations was in service of the design team’s wishes. That has shifted under Cook, with operations getting more power and visibility in the executive ranks. Significant design team leadership have also departed the company in the last five years, notably with Jony Ive leaving in 2019, and his replacement Evans Hankey also announcing she is leaving the company this year.

Apple has even decided not to name a replacement for Hankey’s role. Instead, the design team will report to COO Jeff Williams.

It looks like that Tim Cook may be helping cause some internal division at Apple by changing how things worked for years over time form before Steve Jobs left. Apparently he helped operations overrule the design team to push releasing Version 1 of the VR headset for this year. However, that may have created a fissure at the company internally.

To be fair, that does make more sense to put out a product and see what needs to be fixed and changed and put out iterations. The VR space has shown this several times already so it wouldn't make sense to wait until 2027 to put out a sunglasses sized product which ay even then, still might not be close to existing and we are still strapping something on our head for a high price.

Apple expects, at a ~$3000 price according to the article, to sell 1 million headsets in the fist year, which is up from an older rumor of them shipping a few hundred thousand in an older report thread. It seems they expect this version 1 product to sell quite well, and don't want to miss the opportunity so are pushing to pressure the teams to get it out in 2023.

The Financial Times which reported on this (which is paywalled) suggests that Tim Cook may be doing this for his legacy, as this wil be according to them the first major tech product release from him since he took over post-Jobs (I guess they forgot about the watch?) and that he wants this VR headset to be part of his legacy. Another article sourcing the FT report says that Apple has been working on this headset for 7 years. If that's true this Mixed Reality headset may be much more advanced than we are thinking.

This may explain why several VR makers are reacting, or in the case of a couple Chinese companies, rushing to beat Apple before they enter, they probably got wind of this news before we did awhile back.
 
$3000, 2hr battery life.... Jesus who the fuck is this aimed at? And all this talk of a technology marvel.. meh, until I see it, it's all bullshit hyperbole, I remember all the secrecy and "incredible" "years ahead" bollocks that came out when the Leap was being developed and look how that turned out, whilst Apple have the deep pockets and best in class engineers there's only so much you can do with the tech available, I'm not expecting to be wow'd tbh
 

Baki

Member
$3000, 2hr battery life.... Jesus who the fuck is this aimed at? And all this talk of a technology marvel.. meh, until I see it, it's all bullshit hyperbole, I remember all the secrecy and "incredible" "years ahead" bollocks that came out when the Leap was being developed and look how that turned out, whilst Apple have the deep pockets and best in class engineers there's only so much you can do with the tech available, I'm not expecting to be wow'd tbh
People who buy $2k LCD monitors from Apple 😂
 

Stooky

Member
$3000, 2hr battery life.... Jesus who the fuck is this aimed at? And all this talk of a technology marvel.. meh, until I see it, it's all bullshit hyperbole, I remember all the secrecy and "incredible" "years ahead" bollocks that came out when the Leap was being developed and look how that turned out, whilst Apple have the deep pockets and best in class engineers there's only so much you can do with the tech available, I'm not expecting to be wow'd tbh
It doesn’t matter, it will sell.
 

Eddie-Griffin

Cancer the womens baby so we can pregnant the panda, we are looking for igloos tonight Are you sexy?
$3000, 2hr battery life.... Jesus who the fuck is this aimed at? And all this talk of a technology marvel.. meh, until I see it, it's all bullshit hyperbole, I remember all the secrecy and "incredible" "years ahead" bollocks that came out when the Leap was being developed and look how that turned out, whilst Apple have the deep pockets and best in class engineers there's only so much you can do with the tech available, I'm not expecting to be wow'd tbh

Magic Leap? Those were AR glasses.
 

Chiggs

Member
Makes me think Sony and Meta will have the market to themselves.

I wouldn't touch Apple's first gen product with a ten foot pole.
 
Releasing a product for a CEO's legacy is insanely narcissistic and could backfire if it's rushed to market. Your legacy then has a stain on it.

Having an "operations" guy meddle in "design" is not a good idea.
 
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Rudius

Member
No need to wait for semi transparent screens, as a good passthrough goes a long way.

Ignoring the fact that it is black and white, the PSVR2 is almost "usable" in terms of resolution and stability, but not quite. I can imagine why the Quest Pro failed in that regard.

Double the resolution, add full stable color and it should be enough enough for a first generation work device.
 

ckaneo

Member
A 3000 headset is dead on arrival.

I saw someone put in the theory they were pushinfg the 3000 number so that when it comes it cheaper it looks like a deal. Knowing apple they will probably charge 3000 and people will still buy it
 

tusharngf

Member
$3000 ?

giphy.gif
 

Eddie-Griffin

Cancer the womens baby so we can pregnant the panda, we are looking for igloos tonight Are you sexy?
Releasing a product for a CEO's legacy is insanely narcissistic and could backfire if it's rushed to market. Your legacy then has a stain on it.

Having an "operations" guy meddle in "design" is not a good idea.

That depends on how far they are and what they will show at the June Reveal. The main issue with the design team is they wanted to wait for a lighter headset with decent battery, and more time for some other features.

But if it still has out this year, what most of the leaks say along with the motion pen and Kinect style you are the waggle. and all the high-end OLED and other stuff, then it may be enough to convince 1 million people or more to pay $3000, or get it on a subsidized plan for X amount a month.

it seems that the expect sales of 1 million at least in the first years is part of the reason why Timmy and Operations want to put this out, as well as establishing their place, aiding Tims legacy, and possibly having some control over the market.

Remember we have already seen companies who likely seen more than the public, reacting to Apple stuff or rushing out their OWN headsets to try and get ahead of them.
 

diffusionx

Member
Apple has always had a tension between design and engineering. Jobs mostly walked that line perfectly, outside of some mistakes like the hockey puck mouse. Cook handed over too much power to Ive/design after Jobs died, which led down the road of those horrible butterfly keyboards and the touch bar. They've reined it back and for the better. I don't see why the design team should get several more years to fiddle with this when they can put out something today and evolve it as they, and every other tech company, do with every other product.
 
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Raonak

Member
I get that it's not consumer focused, but what is even the target audience?

What business is gonna invest in 3K for increased productivity when there isn't even any productivity software available for VR/AR?
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Member
Tim doesn't care if your pockets aren't deep enough. He knows he can milk a few thousands loaded idiots with proofs of concept while waiting for the tech to become affordable by the masses.

Expect shiny presentation videos with a lot of bloom and happy, smiling people abusing the words "powerful" and "magic".
And you will be tempted.
 

Eddie-Griffin

Cancer the womens baby so we can pregnant the panda, we are looking for igloos tonight Are you sexy?
I get that it's not consumer focused,

Actually it is based on what's been coming out. The pro/dev version is what they are apparently putting out to pros/devs first, and the actual full headset release which sill be the consumer version, is the one that's going to release for everyone sometime this year. To be revealed in June at WWDC.

What business is gonna invest in 3K for increased productivity when there isn't even any productivity software available for VR/AR?

Businesses were paying $4000 or more for Holo Lens and Varjo stuff.

Playing Beat Saber is getting more expensive every day.

I was going to say it will probably be on it, But I wouldn't pass it by Zucker to be petty enough to release Beat Saber on all VR ecosystems except Apple specifically.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
This is a place I think Tim is right, the designers wanted to wait until they could do true AR glasses you wear as much as regular glasses, which could be 2027, or it could be later as it's hard to anticipate the progress of technology.

Getting a VR headset out now and building out that developer ecosystem matters, and you can't just win the game by launching so late in 2027. Makes sense to start soon. Apple is still very lacking on the game dev front especially, yes yes I know they make a boatload of money off mobile gaming but that's not the high quality type of title you really want on VR, like who is their developer to make something like a Horizon Call of the Mountain? I hope they very much spend money on courting and growing developers.
 

night13x

Member
What the fuck.

If people actually buy this, they are part of the problem.

I'm going to walk up to a random bridge, brand an apple logo on it, and sell it to some idiot for 500 million.
 
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