Virtual Research\u2019s PC VR headsets were decidedly of a different era, although they helped spark the latest generation. Just three years prior to the release of Oculus Rift DK1, in 2010 Oculus founder Palmer Luckey even called an owner of a Virtual Research V8 a \u201clucky bastard\u201d<\/a>, noting the device\u2019s 60-degree field-of-view was \u201cpretty fantastic\u201d more than a decade after the headset\u2019s release.<\/p>\n Notably, as Ternus was a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems from 1997-2001, he likely worked on the V8, which came out at the tail end of the VR craze of the \u201990s.<\/p>\n Leaving Virtual Research Systems in 2001 for Apple, Ternus worked his way up through a number of the company\u2019s hardware teams, contributing to the development of multiple generations of core products, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac.<\/p>\n His biggest role came in 2021, when Ternus became Apple\u2019s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, taking over from Dan Riccio. As a result, Ternus also inherited the company\u2019s long-term gamble in XR, which spanned more than a decade in the making, as he oversaw Vision Pro\u2019s launch in 2023.<\/p>\n Still, despite his XR lineage, Ternus seems to be skeptical of Vision Pro\u2019s place in Apple\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n As mentioned by Bloomberg\u2019s Mark Gurman<\/a> last month, Ternus has shown some trepidation around Apple\u2019s previous moves in the past, including the now-cancelled Apple Car project\u00a0as well as Vision Pro, which has underperformed relative to other hardware launched under Ternus, including the Apple Watch and AirPods.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the company has taken swings at big new product categories in recent years, Ternus has often been in the conservative camp,\u201d Gurman says. \u201cHe was circumspect about Apple building a car, fearing it would distract the company, drain profits and pull engineers from core products. He was similarly wary of the mixed-reality headset that became the Vision Pro, drawing on his experience of trying to create a virtual-reality head-worn device at a startup in the 1990s. In both of those cases his skepticism was prescient. Apple eventually killed the car, and the Vision Pro has been a bust.\u201d<\/p>\n Slated to take over as CEO once Cook officially steps down this summer, he\u2019s also inheriting the company\u2019s years-long efforts in developing AR glasses<\/a>, which Cook reportedly hopes they can release before Meta.<\/p>\n \u201cTim cares about nothing else,\u201d Bloomberg\u00a0reported<\/a> last year. \u201cIt\u2019s the only thing he\u2019s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n It remains to be seen just how enthusiastic Apple\u2019s new CEO will be on pushing those segment-defining XR devices though. Heading into the second half of the decade, the Cupertino tech giant is ostensibly now balancing ambitions across more segments than ever, including the new consumer-friendly Mac Neo ($600) which is making headway in stripping market share from a host of mid-tier Windows laptops.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the company\u2019s XR hardware roadmap may be taking a slightly unexpected turn. Last month a separate report from Gurman<\/a> detailed a move by Apple to more heavily invest in a competitor to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses\u2014a stark departure from Apple\u2019s initial XR strategy, which supposedly include three distinct categories: an iPhone-tethered AR headset with wireless controller, a high-end mixed reality headset, and standalone AR glasses.<\/p>\n Whatever the case, Ternus\u2019s entry as CEO marks a decisive next chapter as the company. And we\u2019ll be watching to see how he ultimately views Vision Pro, be it a dead end or a launchpad to sleeker, more consumer-friendly XR devices in the future. As it is, we\u2019re still waiting to hear more about the reported follow-ups to Vision Pro<\/a>, which supply chain leaks suggest could include two new headsets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple announced that CEO Tim Cook is stepping down, and John Ternus, a long-time Apple veteran, is set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[111,139,69,145,360,361,362],"class_list":{"0":"post-390373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-virtual-reality","13":"tag-virtualreality","14":"tag-vr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/virtual-systems-vr-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Virtual Reality Systems V8 | Image courtesy ResearchGate<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/john-ternus.jpg\")
<\/a>John Ternus | Image courtesy Apple<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/vision-pro-m5-2.jpg\")
<\/a>Apple Vision Pro (M5) | Image courtesy Apple<\/p>\n