Apple’s AR/VR dreams might just have been dealt a blow what with Avi Bar-Zeev who featured prominently in the company’s AR/VR team has left Apple. Bar-Zeev didn’t reveal what prompted him to leave Apple but said it was the best exit he could have dreamt of.
Bar-Zeev also refused to divulge what exactly he has been up to during his stint at Apple except that he was involved in some new efforts that presumably had to do with developing a new headset of sorts.
Afterall Bar-Zeev’s most recent claim-to-fame is the Hololens mixed reality headset that he co-developed while he was associated with Microsoft.
Bar-Zeev has been working for Apple since 2016 and has left sometime in January this year. As has already been stated, Bar-Zeev was working at Microsoft prior to joining Apple though he has been in the business of virtual and augmented reality for close to three decades now. He has also served at Disney where he would develop virtual reality experiences for implementation in the company’ theme parks worldwide.
Bar-Zeev had also been involved in his own company named Keyhole though that was later acquired by Google. Interestingly, Keyhole later served as the foundation of what has come to be known as Google Maps.
Apple meanwhile is yet to respond to the development, while it’s not known either how much of an impact if at all, Bar-Zeev’s exit will have on its ongoing AR/VR efforts at the moment.
That said, it could take some time for the company to fill in the void left by the exit of Bar-Zeev given the extensive experience he comes with.
In any case, Apple was also touted to launch its own AR and VR headset and were expected to be launched in 2020, something that might seem skeptical at the moment. Apple has been rather secretive with its efforts in this space even though there were also rumors of the company’s other clandestine project, Apple Car too banked heavily on AR and VR for its execution. It remains to be seen how the company copes with the exit of Bar-Zeev, and whether its AR ad VR project are still on course post the exit.
