Apple's former hardware chief and current Apple Vision Pro lead is retiring

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Dan Riccio has been an important executive at Apple through the Steve Jobs and Tim Cook eras, and he's retiring after leading the Apple Vision Pro team.

A serious-looking man with short hair wearing a dark shirt stands against a blurred modern architectural background.
Dan Riccio

John Ternus took over as the Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering after Dan Riccio left the position. Riccio continued to report to
Tim Cook as a vice president leading the Apple Vision Pro team, but he's now set to retire.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Dan Riccio is retiring imminently. The day-to-day operations on the Apple Vision Pro team will be taken over by Mike Rockwell, and oversight will fall under John Ternus.

Dan Riccio has been an incredible influence on Apple since he joined the company in 1998. He became the SVP of Hardware Engineering in 2012 and helped herald products like AirPods and the iPad Pro, but was also the mind behind projects like the ill-fated Apple Car.

While some might call Riccio's departure a bad sign for Apple Vision Pro's performance or its future, that's a highly unlikely conclusion. The reality is Apple's shown a pattern of cushioning executive retirements with smaller positions before they ultimately depart -- like with Jony Ive or Phil Schiller.

Dan Riccio has spent 26 years with Apple and had a very successful career. As always with these kinds of stories, retirement is inevitable for someone over 60, and it isn't usually related to some kind of failure but rather a history of success and wealth, especially at Apple.



Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    StrangeDaysstrangedays Posts: 13,215member
    Yeah after 26 years I don’t think anybody can read into the tea leaves here. Miracle that anyone sticks around that long. 
    mike1williamlondonwatto_cobra
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  • Reply 2 of 9
    JinTechjintech Posts: 1,116member
    Oh no, Apple is DOOMED! ™
    watto_cobra
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  • Reply 3 of 9
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,846member
    For whatever comes next Dan, our very best wishes.
    iOS_Guy80watto_cobra
     2Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 4 of 9
    omasouomasou Posts: 650member
    If I owned even half as much stock as he probably owns, I'd have retired LONG ago.
    iOS_Guy80mike1williamlondonwatto_cobra
     4Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 5 of 9
    The positive spin at the end of this article is kind of embarrassing. AVP is obviously a huge flop to anyone not immersed in the Kool Aid. Though of course, Apple will be just fine with its many other successful products.
    grandact73williamlondon
     1Like 0Dislikes 1Informative
  • Reply 6 of 9
    22july201322july2013 Posts: 3,844member
    People (like AI readers) always want a simple and single reason to answer the question "why?" (in this case, "Why is he retiring?") In reality, there are usually multiple reasons (for everything in life) and in most cases it's impossible, even for the people involved, to say which reason was the "main" reason.
    mike1watto_cobra
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  • Reply 7 of 9
    JamesCude said:
    The positive spin at the end of this article is kind of embarrassing. AVP is obviously a huge flop to anyone not immersed in the Kool Aid. Though of course, Apple will be just fine with its many other successful products.
    From a sales perspective it’s been pretty much bang on target with strong international demand, contrary to lots of initial negative reports. Latest IDC reports say that Q2 sales have risen by over 11% vs Q1, and should be on target for roughly 400-500k units this year. Prior to launch, supply reports said that production for year one was limited to roughly 400k units due to Sony’s production capacity limits for the displays. 

    If anything it’s just a reminder of how crazily accurate Apple is at anticipating consumer response. No other manufacturer can achieve sales within a 10-20% margin of their original estimates when it’s a completely new device. 

    Personally, my own view is Vision Pro sadly hasn’t received the developer attention that it needs, but I can’t see how anybody would call it a huge flop on the metrics which actually matter to Apple (sales). 
    mattinozdewmewilliamlondonwatto_cobra
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  • Reply 8 of 9
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,680member
    sloaah said:
    JamesCude said:
    The positive spin at the end of this article is kind of embarrassing. AVP is obviously a huge flop to anyone not immersed in the Kool Aid. Though of course, Apple will be just fine with its many other successful products.
    From a sales perspective it’s been pretty much bang on target with strong international demand, contrary to lots of initial negative reports. Latest IDC reports say that Q2 sales have risen by over 11% vs Q1, and should be on target for roughly 400-500k units this year. Prior to launch, supply reports said that production for year one was limited to roughly 400k units due to Sony’s production capacity limits for the displays. 

    If anything it’s just a reminder of how crazily accurate Apple is at anticipating consumer response. No other manufacturer can achieve sales within a 10-20% margin of their original estimates when it’s a completely new device. 

    Personally, my own view is Vision Pro sadly hasn’t received the developer attention that it needs, but I can’t see how anybody would call it a huge flop on the metrics which actually matter to Apple (sales). 
    I thought I would have seen a product in my pro-niche by now. Then again most of the pro-niche apps for the first Mac took a year to launch. 

    If the visionPro team aren’t talking to some interesting Mac apps and asking them why they haven’t launched yet then they are missing an opportunity. I thought Xplane would be supported before now. That sort of training would seem like a big opportunity. 

    williamlondonwatto_cobra
     1Like 0Dislikes 1Informative
  • Reply 9 of 9
    Great guy. Part of the Apple Dream Team. He wil be sorely missed. Hope he enjoys a well deserved retirement. 
    watto_cobra
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
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