According to a new rumor report this morning, Apple intends to train select retail staff on the Vision Pro in “first months” of 2024. The release of the Vision Pro is approaching, with Apple beginning to prepare retail employees for the device to go on sale next year. The company has sent a memo out to retail employees asking them to apply for a secretive “product training event” in Cupertino, California. The gathering will take place in the early months of 2024. This event is, of course, to teach retail employees about the Vision Pro and train them on the complex sales procedures involved.

“Selected team members will travel and participate in an event in Cupertino, California, at some point in the first months of 2024. Upon returning to their home store, they’ll deliver training and ongoing support to store team members,” the memo says. “This is a group opportunity for those who have a deep passion for demonstrating Apple products and teaching others.” Those who want in will need to pass an application and interview process.

In other words, Apple wants to bring in a couple people from each retail store in the US to train them on the Vision Pro and then send them back home to teach their colleagues about it. What does this tell us about the Vision Pro launch timing? Not much, perhaps. The memo doesn’t say when the product will go on sale or how long the training will run. But it’s probably a further signal that the device won’t be ready at the very beginning of the new year. Apple has only said that the Vision Pro is arriving in “early” 2024, wording that gives it plenty of wiggle room.

The rollout of the Vision Pro is expected to be the most complicated in the company’s history. Flagship Apple retail locations will be adding dedicated hands-on areas, with other stores getting one or two demo units apiece. The company is also planning to assemble the Vision Pros for customers in-store — like it does with the Apple Watch — embedding proper bands, light seals and optional prescription lenses.

Generative AI

In respect to generative AI, Apple’s Giannandrea is overseeing development of the underlying technology for a new AI system, and his team is revamping Siri in a way that will deeply implement it. This smarter version of Siri could be ready as soon as next year, but there are still concerns about the technology and it may take longer for Apple’s AI features to spread across its product line. 

Federighi’s software engineering group, meanwhile, is adding AI to the next version of iOS. There’s an edict to fill it with features running on the company’s large language model, or LLM, which uses a flood of data to hone AI capabilities. The new features should improve how both Siri and the Messages app can field questions and auto-complete sentences, mirroring recent changes to competing services.

Apple’s software engineering teams are also looking at integrating generative AI into development tools like Xcode, a move that could help app developers write new applications more quickly. That would bring it in line with services like Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, which offers auto-complete suggestions to developers while they write code.

And Cue’s organization is pushing to add AI to as many apps as possible. The group is exploring new features for Apple Music, including auto-generated playlists (this is something Spotify rolled out earlier this year in partnership with OpenAI), as well as the company’s productivity apps.

Cue’s team is examining how generative AI can be used to help people write in apps like Pages or auto-create slide decks in Keynote. Again, this is similar to what Microsoft has already launched for its Word and PowerPoint apps.

For ongoing rumors about possible future Macs and their timing to market, review today’s full Bloomberg report.