Apple will lose a key member of the Vision Pro team. Dan Riccio, hardware veteran and current head of mixed reality at Cupertino, has announced his retirement. Riccio will leave Apple this month, ending a landmark cycle in which he oversaw the company’s most iconic products.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Dan Riccio retires after 26 years of continuous service. The manager joined Apple in 1998 as vice president of product design and was named vice president of iPad hardware engineering in 2010.
Since he joined the company made significant contributions to several projectsmostly iPad. He was later promoted to Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Apple, where he was responsible for the company’s engineering teams.
Dan Riccio left top job to focus on the project that would later become Vision Pro. Under his leadership, the Vision Products group released one of the most important Apple devices in recent years.
The idea to leave the position of head of the engineering department in 2021 was not accidental. According to Mark Gurman, this change was the first step towards his resignation. Dan Riccio is one of the last Jobs-era executives to leave Apple. His departure is comparable to that of Jony Ive.who retired in 2019 to open his own design studio.
What Dan Riccio did at Apple
When we talk about Apple, we often think of names like Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Jony Ive or Phil Schiller. Although Dan Riccio is not widely known, his contributions to Apple products are impressive.
Dan served Bob Mansfield’s right hand manformer vice president of hardware and oversaw the development of several generations of iPad. When Bob Mansfield announced his retirement, Riccio was the ideal candidate to take his place. “Dan has long been one of Bob’s key lieutenants and is highly respected throughout Apple and the industry,” Tim Cook said at the time.
Since becoming head of the technical department, Dan Riccio has led several projects and played a key role in the launch of iPad Pro and AirPods. Riccio also promoted a larger-screen iPhone design, an idea that marked a paradigm shift within Apple. After years of producing models that fit perfectly in the palm of your hand, the Cupertino-based manufacturers took a step forward and never looked back.
Although his resume is full of successes, Dan Riccio also fell several times.. He AirPowerannounced during the presentation of the iPhone 8, was canceled due to non-compliance with quality standards. Riccio also failed to convince Apple to develop a self-driving car or TV.
Their latest milestone is the Vision Pro, a mixed reality headset that offers a unique experience.
Source: Hiper Textual
I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.
