According to the Financial Times, Apple boss Tim Cook is said to be upset with the prolonged development of AR&VR glasses. The focus is on the company’s own design department.
By Thomas Hartmann
The AR/VR headset for Mixed Reality has been in development for seven years, but there’s still no official presentation from Apple or even a roadmap for go-to-market. Apple CEO Tim Cook is said to be running out of patience over this, according to a report by Austrian IT magazine Futurezone, following an article in the Financial Times.
For the iPhone, which first appeared in 2007, development time was only half as long, still under the direction of Steve Jobs. This doesn’t seem to be due to the headset’s intended functionality for augmented and virtual reality per se. Part of the development team had already pressed for the release of version 1 of the AR&VR glasses. But because they still looked “like ski goggles,” Apple’s design department refused to show them. According to the report, users could watch 3D videos and chat with avatars through Facetime.
Design team: form before functionality
The design team would prefer to wait until lighter and therefore more elegant versions of such glasses are viable, which could take years. That’s why Cook Ran spurred an early presentation of the headphones. The pressure on Tim Cook with his first project developed from scratch under his aegis is therefore high. The planned glasses must be a great sales success.
But the price of entry is likely to be very high, especially at the beginning: According to the report, the headphones will be made of aluminum, carbon fiber and glass and will have a series of cameras and high-resolution screens. The cost would be around $3,000 – three times as expensive as Meta’s (Facebook) “Quest Pro”. According to the Financial Times, Apple expects to sell around one million pairs of glasses in the first year.
However, it is still unclear when Apple will come up with an example that is ready to be seen by the public. The WWDC developer conference is expected to present the best opportunity.
