The TRUTH About Apple Vision Pro

Someone needs to say it

Believe it or not, it’s nearly two weeks since Apple introduced us to what they believe will be the next era of computing.

Nicknamed ‘spatial computing’, this vision (pun intended) is fuelled by the company’s first mixed reality headset (I’m calling it that, because no one seems to agree on whether it’s VR or AR). Priced at $3,499 and available in the US next year, Vision Pro is powered by an equally brand-new operating system, visionOS.

The announcement has split my audience — perhaps more so than any other Apple product I can recall. Apple’s messaging about the product and the reaction from the audience has absolutely fascinated me — not least because I have serious doubts about Vision Pro myself.

Warning: depending on the side of the fence on which you reside, you may not find the following opinion palatable.

When two tribes go to war

The reaction to the Vision Pro announcement immediately created two warring factions. The first consists of people who believed, immediately, in Tim’s new era of computing. For them, this is what they’d been waiting for; it’s Cook’s ‘iPhone moment’ — finally. Apple has stepped into the mixed reality field and made sense of it. This will change everything forever — just wait. Sorry? No, forget the price, forget the silly Minion eyes — you don’t get it; Apple has already nailed this. Get with it, grandad. Etc.

The second faction consists of people who are deeply impressed with the technical feat achieved by the Vision Pro team, but who are equally cautious about hailing its imminent success. Woah, hold your horses, let’s just think about this — wait, what is that guy doing with that thing strapped to his face at his kid’s party? Etc.

The reason for this split of opinion is, I think, obvious. It separates the uber-Apple fans from the casual. Although I should highlight that I don’t see any issue with people sitting in either camp; you’re allowed to be a die-hard fan of a brand as much as you are a cautious fan. My suspicion, however, is that people residing outside of these camps probably aren’t celebrating the definitive success of Vision Pro.

What I think happened with Vision Pro

We’ll never know the true story behind the development of Vision Pro and visionOS (that is until someone leaves and writes the book, of course), but I’m willing to take a guess.

Apple clearly started developing this platform many years ago. It’s why we’ve seen the gradual introduction of AR tech in iPhones and iPads — this stuff was all a precursor to what we saw last week, as has been the relentless priority of spatial audio and Dolby Atmos in the Apple audio department.

The platform they’ve created as a result is undeniably impressive. I’m not lucky enough to have received a press invite to try it out, but the reaction of those who did appears to be genuine across the board; they were all clearly utterly bowled over by what Vision Pro is capable of.

Creating accurate eye tracking for user interface control and rendering text accurately in a virtual world represents massive technical challenges. Years of work have undeniably gone into this platform.

And then, COVID happened.

This world-changing event was a hideous period for everyone, but it was also perfect timing for Apple’s mixed reality ambitions. Talk about serendipity; there you are, developing what you hope will be the next era of computing (I mean, what else was there to do apart from following what happens in the movies?) when an unforeseen global catastrophe throws most of the world’s population into remote work. This was, clearly, Vision Pro’s raison d’être!

For me, Apple’s demonstrations of Vision Pro felt very ‘COVID’ and, consequently, rather alien in the now-normal world. We saw people using the device on their own or in huge working spaces with only a few people around. And, yes, there was the guy re-watching creepy videos of his kid’s birthday party. On his own.

As the infection rate decreased and the impact of the pandemic on society lessened, Apple was already deep into the development of Vision Pro. While people gradually removed their face masks, got closer to one another and returned to normal working conditions, Tim had no choice but to plough on.

This has left Apple with a huge investment into a product which immediately feels many years away from ever being widely accepted or bought into. In a weird way, it almost feels too late. I don’t agree with the iPhone or Apple Watch comparisons, either — both of those products were indeed pushing boundaries at the time of launch, but they did so from a base of familiarity; we were all familiar with smartphones and digital watches when they launched. You cannot say the same about VR or AR; it remains a massively expensive faff for most people.

As a result, Apple Vision Pro feels like a huge punt, I’m afraid.

Waning interest

As a content creator, you can rinse most of Apple’s products for longer than you think. The iPhone probably has the least stamina, but there’s nothing stopping you from undertaking comparisons with competing products and the usual two-week-, one-month-, and three-month-later reviews.

Macs are another kettle of fish. I’m still making videos about the M1 Mac mini, and that thing was launched in 2020. The Apple Watch? Ditto; thanks to editions like the Apple Watch Ultra, there’s a constant thirst for new content about that product.

The interest in Apple Vision Pro has died an immediate death. Check out this Google Trends graph for the last thirty days:

A huge spike, right when you expect it (i.e. the day after WWDC) and then, well, who gives a shit?

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Apple isn’t unleashing Vision Pro until early next year and only in the US, to begin with. The lack of a firm release date, and the fact that only developers will have time with the new platform until then means there’s very little to talk about.

I have no plans to make any more Vision Pro content until it arrives. Indeed, this will probably be the last thing I’ll write about it for quite some time, and I’m certainly not spending any more precious YouTube credits on it. When it does arrive, I expect interest to skyrocket, which is why I’m considering taking a trip out to the States to check it out for myself.

For now, though, it’s a case of focusing on good, old-fashioned, ‘regular computing’. Whatever that is.

There’s just one last thing I’d like to say.

Wrapping up: the dystopian future that isn’t

There’s one huge elephant remaining in the room.

Apple doesn’t want us to strap great big ski goggles with fake googly eyes to our faces. They don’t want us to battle with two hours of battery life via an annoying tethered battery pack. They don’t want us to do any of that stuff just as much as they didn’t want great big bezels on the original iPhone or questionable battery life on the first Apple Watch.

They want Vision Pro to reduce in size to the point where it’s nothing more than a regular pair of glasses. But that reality is clearly many, many years away.

The iPhone and the Apple Watch morphed gradually into the devices Apple wanted them to be. The reason they weren’t canned during that process is that they were already desirable, relatively sensibly priced (in Apple Land), and entered markets that were established but devoid of forward-thinking, approachable products. They were destined to be a success.

Apple Vision Pro isn’t guaranteed to work in the same way. None of us knows how developers will react to it (how much time and resource would you put into a product that is so far out of reach for normal users and will be for many years?) or how much stamina Apple’s board and investors will have for a product that needs probably a decade of development to be made digestible for the masses.

I remain the most cautious of fans for this one and I will check in again on the matter… next year.

In the meantime, please leave your thoughts below!

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Originally published at https://markellisreviews.com on June 16, 2023.