Has Apple's Tim Cook put everything on the line for Apple Reality?
Is there a turf war between Apple’s operations and design teams over the first-generation Apple AR glasses? Or are we now hearing about old news being rehashed as competitors spread negative gossip in fear of Apple’s looming AR launch?
What we think we know
We can’t be certain, but this is what happened on the Apple Rumor Merry-go-round in the last 48 hours:
- The Financial Times claimed Apple CEO Tim Cook might have ordered the launch of the new devices this year, despite warnings from those working on the project that the product isn’t yet ready.
- Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman later said the events described took place in 2018 when then-design lead Jony Ive pushed for AR above VR, with Apple compromising on a mixed-reality headset.
- Gurman also said 11 high-ranking executives left the company in the second half of 2022. These were people in command of hardware, software, design, privacy, cloud, and other key verticals across the company. This may not relate to the above, but hints at some internal instability.
Apple has reportedly been working on AR glasses for seven years or more.