Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Apple is building a mixed reality headset that’s set to ship this year. The company’s MR (AR+VR) hardware ranks among its longest-lasting rumor cycles. Some (Apple Watch) have borne fruit. Others (that pesky Apple TV set) not so much.
The category doesn’t feel like a foregone conclusion for Apple. The road to a successful XR play is littered with the bodies of big corporations and well-funded startups. The underwhelming state of things is certainly not for a lack of trying. It’s also a wholly new product category — something that doesn’t come along every day.
There’s an interesting conversation to be had regarding how such a product would play into Tim Cook’s legacy, more than a decade after he took over the chief executive gig. While Steve Jobs’ role at the helm of the company during the development of the Mac, iPhone, iPad, et al. cemented his position as one of the 20th/21st century’s leading technolo...
