Longtime Apple Executive Dan Riccio Retiring Later This Month

Longtime Apple employee Dan Riccio is set to retire from the company later this month, reports Bloomberg. Riccio has worked at Apple for 26 years, most recently overseeing Vision Pro development as an engineering VP reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

apple dan riccio
Riccio joined Apple in June 1998 as a product design director, and in August 2012, he was promoted to senior vice president of hardware engineering, a role he held for more than eight years before transitioning to an unspecified project in 2021. The unspecified project turned out to be the Vision Pro headset.

John Ternus succeeded Riccio as Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, and Ternus will also now take over Vision Pro development and the couple thousand engineers in the Vision Products Group. Mike Rockwell, who has been working under Riccio, will continue to oversee the day-to-day work on the Vision Pro and similar headsets.

In addition to working on the Vision Pro, Riccio also was a key proponent for Apple's work on a self-driving car, a project that the company ultimately scrapped earlier this year. Over his time at Apple, he also oversaw development of the AirPods, iPad Pro, and the initial larger-screened iPhones.

Popular Stories

Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker. According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds Second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found. Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
Google maps feaure

Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you. Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Johny Srouji

Apple's Chipmaking Chief Johny Srouji Responds to Report About Him Potentially Leaving

Monday December 8, 2025 9:23 am PST by
Apple's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reportedly indicated that he plans to continue working for the company for the foreseeable future. "I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," said Srouji, in a memo obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Here is Srouji's full memo, as shared by Bloomberg:I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Monday December 1, 2025 2:40 am PST by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
google pixel 10

Switching Between iPhone and Android Will Get Easier With New Apple and Google Collaboration

Monday December 8, 2025 11:10 am PST by
Apple and Google are teaming up to make it easier for users to switch between iPhone and Android smartphones, according to 9to5Google. There is a new Android Canary build available today that simplifies data transfer between two smartphones, and Apple is going to implement the functionality in an upcoming iOS 26 beta. Apple already has a Move to iOS app for transferring data from an Android...
Apple Fitness Plus expansion hero

Apple Fitness+ Coming to 28 New Regions With Digital Voice Dubbing

Monday December 8, 2025 6:19 am PST by
Apple today announced that Fitness+ is expanding to 28 new markets on December 15 in the service's largest international rollout since launch, accompanied by new language dubbing and a K-Pop music genre. Apple Fitness+ will become available in Chile, Hong Kong, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, and additional regions on December 15, with Japan scheduled to follow early next year....
Johny Srouji

Apple Chip Chief Johny Srouji Could Be Next to Go as Exodus Continues

Sunday December 7, 2025 10:41 am PST by
Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji could be the next leading executive to leave the company amid an alarming exodus of leading employees, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Srouji apparently recently told CEO Tim Cook that he is "seriously considering leaving" in the near future. He intends to join another company if he departs. Srouji leads Apple's chip design ...

Top Rated Comments

coffeemilktea Avatar
15 months ago

John Ternus succeeded Riccio as Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, and Ternus will also now take over Vision Pro development and the couple thousand engineers in the Vision Products Group.
The year is 2034. The iPhone 27 is being introduced by John Ternus. He turns it over to the Apple Silicon team to explain the A28 Bionic Pro and the speaker is... John Ternus? The camera pans to the Apple Watch team. John Ternus. The macOS 25 team comes out: it's John Ternus. Apple Vision Pro 5, Ted Lasso season 14, the iPad Pro Ultra Mini Air ("isn't that just a regular iPad?" you think) all come out, presented by John Ternus.

You sigh, and close the lid on your 2033 M13 MacBook Air, and stare out the window. You see your tired reflection.

John Ternus stares back at you.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AndiG Avatar
15 months ago
I have the strong feeling that the longer the people work for Apple the more they start looking kind of Apple-ish. But maybe this is just a terrible photo.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CWallace Avatar
15 months ago
Considering he got the Vision Pro out the door and it is (currently) the most advanced consumer VR and AR product on sale, why fire him?

It is not like he personally decided it should sell for $3500 nor was he in charge of the (lack of) marketing and promotion for it. That falls on Cook and Joswiak as CEO and SVP of Worldwide Marketing, respectively.

Clearly, he either is looking for new challenges or he is ready to retire and enjoy his money.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jaw04005 Avatar
15 months ago

And AirPower

"Riccio led the Mac ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh'), iPhone ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone'), iPad ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad'), iPod ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod'), Apple TV ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_TV'), HomePod ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomePod'), AirPods ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPods'), and Apple Watch ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Watch') engineering teams, which have produced numerous products."

He also was the in charge of the hardware team that made the original iPad under Steve Jobs.

I think his track record speaks for itself. Well deserved retirement.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mrkevinfinnerty Avatar
15 months ago

What would you define as the “Apple” look.
Open neck shirt, slightly greying, outstanding eyebrows
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrENGLISH Avatar
15 months ago

r u sure it isn’t FORCED retirement considering the $Billions Apple sunk into the AVP money pit?
He was also involved with the cancelled Apple Car project.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)