Tim Cook pictured for first time wearing Apple Vision Pro, says he tried prototype over five years ago
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been pictured for the first time wearing Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s all-new mixed-reality headset which releases in the US on Friday, with Cook saying in an interview with Vanity Fair that he first tried Apple Vision Pro more than five years ago, although the experience was much different than the final product launching soon.
According to Cook, the first Apple Vision Pro prototype “wasn’t wearable by any means of the imagination.” The early prototype reportedly was a “massive, monstrous machine” with screens in it, half a dozen of them layered on top of each other, and cameras “sticking out like whiskers.”
Reflecting on the development of the headset, which saw Apple’s engineers reduce the size of the prototype from a supercomputer with fans and multiple screens to the final goggle-like version that ships on Friday, Cook said “I’ve known for years we would get here — I didn’t know when, but I knew that we would arrive here.”
Apple introduced Apple Vision Pro last year, made from a single piece of three-dimensionally shaped laminated glass with an aluminum alloy frame that contours to the user’s face, the device boasts an array of advanced cameras and sensors. These components collaborate to deliver an immersive mixed-reality experience, enhanced by speakers strategically positioned near the user’s ears to provide Spatial Audio, resulting in lifelike three-dimensional environments.