Former Apple hardware chief Dan Riccio is retiring

Dan Riccio, one of Apple’s most prominent executives for more than two decades, will retire from the company this month, according to a report in Bloomberg that cites people with knowledge of the move.

Reportedly, Riccio has said he has been planning his retirement for the past five years, and his last day will be Friday, October 11.

Riccio began working at Apple in 1998, and by 2012, he had become the chief of hardware engineering. In that role, he oversaw several major hardware developments for Apple, including AirPods, the evolution of the modern iPhone, the iPad Pro, and more.

He held the title of senior vice president of hardware engineering during that time, then moved into a new role within the company in January of 2021. The public at first only knew that he was working on a “new project” at that time, but before long it became clear the project in question was what became the Vision Pro, Apple’s augmented-reality headset that launched this February.

The group that produced the Vision Pro is called the Vision Products Group within the company; that’s the 2,000-engineer-strong group Riccio has overseen since 2021. He was also involved in developing Project Titan, Apple’s smart car initiative that was eventually abandoned.