Facebook's Oculus hires Apple veteran to lead VR hardware push Facebook has hired Apple VR veteran Michael Hillman to heads its Oculus VR hardware division, Bloomberg reported.
Hillman is a 15-year Apple veteran who helped develop some of its most popular consumer products, including the iMac desktop computer, Bloomberg noted, citing his LinkedIn profile. Hillman's hire comes not long after Facebook nabbed Hugo Barra from Xiaomi Corp. to lead all of its virtual reality efforts.
Oculus VR has bolstered its executive ranks with big names from Apple and Xiaomi
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Hillman was with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) until October 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile, then served a year-long stint as a vice president for self-driving car tech startup Zoox Inc. in Menlo Park.
At Oculus, which Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) bought in 2014 for $2 billion, Hillman will work alongside Oculus Chief Operating Officer Hans Hartmann, company spokesperson Andrea Schubert told Bloomberg. Hartmann joined Facebook from Fitbit last year.
Facebook, competing to enter an already crowded market for still-nascent VR technology, has struggled to gain a foothold for the devices. Last month, the company said it would close nearly half of its Oculus VR demo stations in Best Buy stores — a big setback for its first major push into retail.
To compete with devices from Sony and Microsoft, Oculus will need to offer a headset at a lower price, Oculus co-founder Jack McCauley told Bloomberg earlier this month. Oculus has already dropped the price on its Rift headset and touch controller by $100 as it tries to reach a wider swath of consumers.
For mass adoption, VR companies have to overcome consumer apprehension about the technology, another analyst has said. VR devices tend to be “large, clunky and uncomfortable to wear," Richard Windsor, an analyst at Edison Investment Research, wrote last month, and "in many cases they also make the user feel foolish when wearing one.” He went on to warn investors that they should steer clear of VR ventures this year, citing still-tepid consumer interest in the technology.
And so we are told this is the golden age
And gold is the reason for the wars we wage U2
