According to a report from The New York Times, some Apple employees don’t seem convinced Apple’s mixed reality headset is ready just yet, even though its expected release is only a few months away. Although some employees apparently left the project because of their doubts, few remain skeptical about the headset’s potential, especially at the $3,000 price point.
The headset debuted at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. Apple recently demonstrated the product in front of 100 of the company’s top executives at the Steve Jobs Theater in California, “suggesting that the date for a public reveal is approaching,” according to Bloomberg.
The New York Times claims that behind the “glamorous” show was some serious internal disagreement regarding the future of mixed reality glasses. While this seems pretty standard for when a company enters an entirely new product category (which Apple has done time and time again), the Times claims this time is extraordinarily different.
The New York Times wrote, “Some internal skeptics have wondered if the new device represents a solution in the search for a problem. Unlike the iPod, which puts digital songs in people’s pockets, and the iPhone, which combines the capabilities of a music player and a phone, it has not The headset is just as clear.”
According to the Times, a series of executive departures from the product design team, beginning with Jony Ive in 2019 and the departure of Evans Hankey the following year, have contributed to some of the uncertainty defined today… Since this departure, Apple has yet to appoint The new head of industrial design has assigned engineer Mike Rockwell the responsibility for headset development.
The Times reports that some employees are unsure whether the company will delay the headset’s debut due to skepticism expressed by both employees and Apple executives. That doesn’t appear to be the case, though, as sources tell The Times that a June launch is still on schedule and that “headphone manufacturing is well underway” for release expected in the coming months.
Rumors about the VR headset have been very active in the months leading up to the expected release of the product. According to rumors, the headset may look like a pair of ski goggles, have a physical crown that lets you slide in and out of VR, and have a physical battery pack that fits in your pocket. While the $3,000 device may have been designed for developers when it first launched, Gurman believes that Apple is working on a cheaper version of the headphones that it may release as soon as next year.