Apple has dragged its feet when it comes to launching its rumoured augmented reality headset for long enough. According to a new Financial Times report, company head Tim Cook made the call to release Apple’s AR hardware to the public despite pushback from the company’s design team.

This goes some way towards explaining the numerous delays from Apple despite copious amounts of information being available. According to the report, Apple has argued over the timing of its virtual reality hardware launch since the project’s inception in 2016.

It’s on Tim Cook’s head

Apple is all about design. It’s a major factor in everything the company puts out so if the design team has objections, they’re worth listening to. But, the Financial Times reports, CEO Tim Cook has finally taken the advice of operations head Jeff Williams over the concerns of the design team.

The original plan from Apple’s operations team was to ship the ‘ski goggles’ design (seen in the header image above or these renders by Ian Zelbo). That design offers a few functions. 3D video, immersive video calls, and other augmented or virtual experiences are possible but Apple’s designers were adamant that they could do far better with a little more time and technological development.

In other words, Tim Cook is taking a chance with the expected WWDC launch of this hardware in June this year. He could, as Financial Times puts it, be “…guaranteeing his legacy includes the launch of a next-generation hardware product”. Or he could be showing Apple’s cards a little too early. After seven years of development, though, the company has to show something or risk its VR and AR kit being branded vapourware. And that’s not a term that Apple wants to be associated with.

Source: Financial Times