Oliver Haslam on February 9, 2021, 1:42 am

Report: Apple’s Dan Riccio Is Now In Charge Of Its AR, VR Headsets

Apple’s Dan Riccio is now in charge of the company’s AR and VR headset efforts, according to a new report. Previously the head of hardware engineering, Riccio moved away from that role recently and was said to be taking on a new project.

While some had suggested that would be AR and VR-related, a new Bloomberg report claims that is indeed the case.

Apple has long been rumored to have a headset of some sort in the works and now it seems Riccio is the one who will be heading up the project, although Apple refuses to comment on the speculation.

That new project is overseeing the team developing future Apple AR and VR headsets, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Notably, Bloomberg’s report claims that the headset project has more than 1,000 engineers working beneath Riccio – this isn’t a side project for Apple and it clearly has plenty of weight behind it.

Apple’s work on its first headset, a high-end VR-focused device with some AR capabilities, has faced development challenges, and people within Apple believe Riccio’s extra focus could help. While he has ultimate oversight of the project, it is led day-to-day by Mike Rockwell, an Apple vice president who has well over a thousand engineers working on the two devices.

On another note, Apple’s Johny Srouji is now reportedly in charge of the team members working on in-house displays and camera technology. Srouji is already in charge of processors and cellular modems.