Apple veteran Ruben Caballero joins Microsoft as Corporate VP of hardware, AI division

Microsoft never steps back from a strategic business move. Recently, the tech giant has welcomed former senior Apple executive Ruben Caballero for its hardware division that makes HoloLens Mixed Reality headsets.

Caballero has joined Microsoft as Corporate Vice President Engineering - Hardware Design & Technology at its Mixed Reality and AI Division, responsible for the development of HoloLens and other "Special Projects".

Talking about his previous achievements, Caballero was Vice President of Engineering at Apple for nearly 14 years on the strategy, roadmap and design of products, including the first designs of the iPhone and iPad. He was one of the founding leaders of the iPhone hardware team and later expanding his role to include iPad, Apple Watch, Macintosh and all other hardware products. In addition, he became the product leader for the last two generations of Apple TV and Airport devices.

Microsoft's HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset, which was introduced at Mobile World Congress in February last year, is now available to purchase. The next-generation AR headset is built off a Qualcomm system-on-a-chip and is targeted at enterprise, not mainstream customers. The headset offers a new time-of-flight depth sensor, combined with built-in artificial intelligence and semantic understanding to enable direct manipulation of holograms in a more realistic fashion.