New York (CNN) 鈥� When Tim Cook took over as Apple CEO from Steve Jobs nearly 12 years ago, some thought the company was .
Under Cook, however, Apple鈥檚 market cap has surged by more than 700% to nearly $3 trillion. Its iPhone business has continued to be a juggernaut, fueled by new features and pricing strategies under his watch. And Apple has built up a robust , including paid music, TV and gaming products, giving the company a steady revenue stream not beholden to the cyclical nature of hardware sales.
But missing from at Apple has been the kind of massive, exciting product innovation seen during the Jobs years that could change how people interact with technology. Until now.
Last week, Apple introduced the , a mixed reality headset that the company says will usher in a new era of 鈥渟patial computing.鈥� The headset blends both virtual reality and augmented reality, a technology that overlays virtual images on live video of the real world. It鈥檚 Apple鈥檚 biggest, and riskiest, product launch in years.
Cook has for years extolled the promise of augmented reality, touting its potential to help people communicate and collaborate with each other. At its event last week, Cook called the headset a 鈥渞evolutionary product鈥� and 鈥渢he first product you look through, not at.鈥�
But Cook is also better known as an operations mastermind than a product visionary. The two biggest product launches under Cook prior to the Vision Pro were the Apple Watch in 2015 and AirPods the following year. Those products proved to be successful moneymakers, but they didn鈥檛 exactly create a new paradigm for the company or the industry in the way the iPhone did under Jobs.
The Vision Pro, which goes on sale early next year, could end up being the product that defines Cook鈥檚 legacy, whether it fails or succeeds. And its success is anything but guaranteed.
Virtual and augmented reality remains a with little mainstream consumer adoption. Apple plans to charge a hefty $3,499 for its headset, which currently has limited apps and experiences, and requires users to stay tethered to a battery pack the size of an iPhone. And that鈥檚 saying nothing of the challenges of convincing users to regularly on their faces.
鈥淭he world of the headset is a real challenge 鈥� it鈥檚 proven to be a challenge to create a mass market for that,鈥� said Margaret O鈥橫ara, tech historian and professor at the University of Washington. 鈥淭he iPhone came about after many years of companies, Apple and others, trying to create a kind of supercomputer in your pocket, there was a long history of attempts. And it came on the market when a lot of people already had some sort of cellphone.鈥�
Followers of the company are divided on what the headset could ultimately mean for Cook. It鈥檚 never wise to bet against Apple when it comes to hardware, but even if the company succeeds, it鈥檚 probably not going to give Cook and Apple an iPhone-level success story, some say.
鈥淚t鈥檚 extremely unlikely to come out with anything even close to the [success of] the iPhone,鈥� said Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners. 鈥淭he last two opportunities 鈥� the watch was nice, the AirPods were nice, and this is probably the third thing that鈥檚 just nice. There鈥檚 a track record now where it鈥檚 extremely difficult to show any type of massive growth that even compares to the iPhone.鈥�
But Tim Bajarin, a longtime Apple analyst and president at consumer tech research firm Creative Strategies, suggests the product shows Apple鈥檚 and Cook鈥檚 track record of innovation. 鈥淲hat Apple has done [with Vision Pro] is reinvent the personal computer,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e just saw the future of computing.鈥�
鈥淚 think from Tim鈥檚 standpoint, he goes at this with a mentality that says: when they come to me saying, 鈥業t can鈥檛 be done,鈥� let鈥檚 make it happen,鈥� Bajarin said.
Bajarin added that the Vision Pro reflects Cook鈥檚 work to grow and improve Apple鈥檚 ecosystem during his time as CEO. The headset likely wouldn鈥檛 be possible without the made in-house during his tenure. Apple鈥檚 services bundle also makes clearer to consumers some of the ways in which they鈥檒l be able to use the device 鈥� for things like meditation or watching movies 鈥� even before the company鈥檚 army of third-party developers build out additional experiences for the device, he said.
By that argument, the headset could serve as a capstone for years of product initiatives under Cook, and for his long tenure at the company.
Cook鈥檚 legacy is already defined as someone who successfully created market value. With the headset, he has the chance to also be known as someone who presided over the creation of an earth-shaking new product. That would truly put him in league with Jobs.
The-CNN-Wire
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