Tim Cook says he always knew Apple would arrive at the Apple Vision Pro

Tim Cook dons the Apple Vision Pro | Credit: Vanity Fair

The Apple Vision Pro is set to start arriving to early adopters on February 2, after years of rumors about its arrival. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Cook discusses what it took to make Apple's spatial computing headset.

According to Tim Cook, the first time he experienced the Apple Vision Pro was more than five years ago. The prototype he tried, however, was not the sleek mask we've come to know today. Instead, it was a crude, large box with multiple screens and cameras and wires that stuck out everywere.

"You weren't really wearing it at that time," he tells the interviewer. "It wasn't wearable by any means of the imagination."

However, that first experience took Tim Cook and put him on the moon — and that's when he knew.

"I've known for years we would get here," Cook said. "I didn't know when, but I knew that we would arrive here."

The interview also examines other people's experiences with the Apple Vision Pro. Director James Cameron called his experience "religious." Technology Writer Om Malik said it was "amazing and incredible."

Even Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, points out how people's first universal experience with the headset is awe.

"You know, one of our most common reactions we love is people go, 'Hold on, I just need a minute. I need to process what just happened,'" he told the interviewer. "How cool is that? How often do people have a product experience where they're left speechless, right?"

Apple is obviously excited about its product. Not everybody is.

"I'm sure the technology is terrific. I still think and hope it fails," one Silicon Valley investor told Vanity Fair. "Apple feels more and more like a tech fentanyl dealer that poses as a rehab provider."

Cook wraps the interview by talking about how creating future-changing technology is less about plans and more about exploration.

"What we do is we get really excited about something and then we start pulling the string and see where it takes us," Cook said. "And yes, we've got things on the road maps and so forth, and yes, we have a definitive point of view. But a lot of it is also the exploration and figuring out."

"Sometimes the dots connect. And they lead you to some place that you didn't expect."