For more than a decade, tech leaders have been hyping it as the next wave of computing after the smartphone. Ive, who left Apple in 2019 and stopped advising the company last year.Īn Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the company’s plans for future products.Īpple’s headset is considered a bellwether for virtual and augmented reality. It has been developed at a time when morale has been strained by a wave of departures from the company’s design team, including Mr. Others have been fired over the lack of progress with some aspects of the headset, including its use of Apple’s Siri voice assistant, one person said.Įven leaders at Apple have questioned the product’s prospects. Some employees have defected from the project because of their doubts about its potential, three people with knowledge of the moves said. That dissension has been a surprising change inside a company where employees have built devices - from the iPod to the Apple Watch - with the single-mindedness of a moon mission.

There are concerns about the device’s roughly $3,000 price, doubts about its utility and worries about its unproven market. The video excited executives about the possibilities of Apple’s next business-altering device: a headset that would blend the digital world with the real one.īut now, as the company prepares to introduce the headset in June, enthusiasm at Apple has given way to skepticism, said eight current and former employees, who requested anonymity because of Apple’s policies against speaking about future products. Soon, the couple were sharing the sights of London through the husband’s eyes. “Would you like to come to London?” he asked, two people who saw the video said. The video showed a man in a London taxi donning an augmented reality headset and calling his wife in San Francisco. When Apple held a corporate retreat in California’s Carmel Valley about five years ago to discuss its next major product, Jony Ive, its longtime design chief, captivated a room of the company’s 100 top executives with a concept video as polished as an Apple commercial.

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