Apple is widely expected to debut its eagerly awaited “Reality Pro” headset in June following a major private showcase held in Steve Jobs theater last week. Despite its imminent launch, internal enthusiasm surrounding the elusive headset may have cooled off, according to a new article by The New York Times.

The newspaper describes a presentation put forward by Apple’s then-chief of design, Jony Ive, during the company’s annual retreat featuring its 100 most influential executives. The demo took place in 2018 and pictures what a face-worn AR device might be capable of:

The video showed a man in a London taxi donning an augmented reality headset and calling his wife in San Francisco. “Would you like to come to London?” he asked, two people who saw the video said. Soon, the couple were sharing the sights of London through the husband’s eyes.

Description of Jony Ive’s headset vision demo in 2018

The demo impressed the executives as engineers enthusiastically continued to develop the headset, but the feverish eagerness has given way to rare cynicism and doubt over many aspects surrounding the headset’s price and capabilities, adds the article. Internal naysayers describe the headset as a “solution in search of a problem”, as XR devices as a whole are yet to have their aha moment.

Any potential last-minute postponement of the headset’s announcement akin to the year-long delay of AirTags seem to be too late, as the headset has reportedly entered mass production, notes the article.

The article adds that some engineers quit the project for personal doubts over the device’s potential, while others were fired “over the lack of progress with some aspects of the headset, including its use of Apple’s Siri voice assistant.” Managers also began to raise similar doubts to their subordinates, as the company began suffering from a designers exodus heralded by none other than the man behind the prior-described demo. Apple’s current head of hardware design, Evans Hankey, is also set to depart soon, and the company surprisingly won’t promote a successor.

The headset’s appearance resemble that of ski goggles, featuring a carbon fiber frame and an external hip-adorned battery pack, adds the article. The headset will also feature a digital crown-like dial to “increase or decrease real-time video from the world around them.” The article stresses that the device is seen as a “bridge to a future product”, as the company awaits major technical innovations to be able to ship a true augmented reality pair of glasses.

The article adds that the device’s main selling point would be a virtual videoconferencing concept described as “copresence”, which is a “word designed to capture the experience of sharing a real or virtual space with someone in another space.” The device will mainly be focused at artists and designers, empowering them to create and edit media content using the headset’s nascent hand gesture tracking capabilities. Video consumption is also expected to be a big selling point, as users will be able to enjoy “custom-made video content from Hollywood filmmakers” on the headset’s dual 4K displays.

Apple’s entry into a new market wouldn’t be complete without hesitancy over its ability to introduce a new market-disrupting device. However, it is startling to see a lack of relentless trust within the company’s own ranks.