A new report today details Apple Inc.’s long struggles with building a mixed reality headset.

The Information spoke with 10 people close to Apple’s headset project who detailed issues with the project going back to 2016. Apple was first reported to be working on a headset as early as 2015.

Insiders in the report claim that the first prototypes of the headset appeared in 2016, and remarkably some were running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system. Other prototypes used “jury-rigged” HTC Vive headsets and one is claimed to have been so heavy it had to be suspended by a small crane.

“Former Vice President Al Gore, then-Disney CEO Bob Iger and other Apple board members walked from room to room, trying out prototype augmented and virtual reality devices and software,” the report said. “One of the gadgets made a tiny digital rhinoceros appear on a table in the room. The creature then grew into a life-size version of itself, according to two people familiar with the meeting.”

The report added that “in the same demo, the drab surroundings of the room transformed into a lush forest, showing how users could seamlessly transition from AR, in which they can still view the physical world around them, to the more immersive experience of VR — a combination known as mixed reality.”

The walk back in time is an interesting look at Apple history, but the more important question is: Why hasn’t the headset since appeared? The report claims that technical challenges and internal politics have been the most significant factors in the delay and, unlike the iPhone before it, there was no Steve Jobs or other influential figure to drive it. The report also suggests that other departments at Apple were not willing to provide support to the project.

The insiders who spoke to The Information were not flattering about Tim Cook, claiming that he is not a product visionary. It’s claimed that Cook rarely visited the headset project and that Cook’s lackluster support made it hard to compete with other products for headcount and engineering resources.

Another interesting takeaway is that the headset was originally conceived to be virtual reality, but switched to mixed reality based on now-former Apple designer Jony Ive arguing that virtual reality “alienated users from other people by cutting them off from the outside world, made users look unfashionable and lacked practical uses.”

When the headset may eventually launch is still open to speculation. It was reported in November that the launch date could be 2022, yet later reports suggest a 2023 launch date is more likely. That the mixed reality could launch in the next year or two is likely, since code supporting the headset was found in iOS 16.

Photo: Pixabay