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It is said that Dan Riccio, one of Apple’s senior names in hardware engineering, is approaching retirement after more than 25 years at the company. Riccio, who carried out important projects during his tenure at Apple, especially played a critical role in the completion of the Apple Vision Pro project. In 2021, he decided to leave his position as senior vice president of hardware engineering and focus on this “special project.”
Architect of the Apple Vision Pro project
Riccio’s career at Apple began working on the Mac as vice president of hardware design, and he later spent most of his career working on the iPad. Prior to Apple, he served as senior manager of mechanical engineering at Compaq. Touch ID and later Face ID, currently key technologies in the security of Apple products, are largely attributed to Riccio’s work. He is also known for spearheading Apple’s move to end its dependence on Intel chips and move chip design in-house.
Riccio, who was appointed vice president of iPad hardware engineering in 2010, became senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2012. In the summer of 2021, he changed the focus of his duties at Apple, handing over this role to John Ternus to focus on Apple Vision Pro.
With the termination of the car project, excluding CarPlay development, significant changes are expected in the company’s engineering hierarchy if Riccio retires. In Bloomberg’s exclusive Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman believes that VP Mike Rockwell, who now runs the day-to-day business of Apple’s Vision Pro group, is likely to report directly to CEO Tim Cook or Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams. Riccio’s retirement marks the end of a successful era under his leadership and opens the door to a new chapter in Apple’s future engineering projects.