Apple is reportedly in a mad dash to ship its long-awaited Reality Pro headset during 2023, despite the concerns of engineers seeking more time to perfect the device.
The Financial Times claims to have spoken to former Apple engineers who’ve worked on the mixed reality headset that they were under “huge pressure to ship” to get the device ready for prime time.
That pressure came from the very top of the food chain, from CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams to be precise, according to the report (via MacRumors).
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According to the report, the engineering team at Apple wanted to hold off on a release until the technology had matured to enable a more lightweight solution than the expected headset – which is said to resemble a pair of ski googles and cost around $3,000.
However, the operations team led by Williams favoured going early with the VR-headset like option and, in the end, Tim Cook took that view too. That may be a risky strategy if the headset arrives before it is quite ready for public consumption.
The product is being seen as particularly important to the legacy of Tim Cook, as it’s the first new major Apple computing category to have its genesis under his tenure as leader.
Cook is said to foresee the augmented reality glasses, that may follow 2-3 years from now, to be a spiritual successor to the iPhone.
For the meantime, though, Apple may unveil the bridge product – rumoured to be called Reality Pro – at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.
Of course, there are plenty of reasons to take this assessment with a pinch of salt. The former engineers speaking to the FT may have personal axes to grind, it goes without saying that engineers at Apple are under lots of pressure, and it’s exceedingly rare Apple ships a product before it is ready these days.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.