Apple Vision Pro. (And Con.)
Apple is a computer company. Again.
In 2001, when Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s first pocket computer, he presented it, not as a computer, but as “1,000 songs in your pocket.”
(If you’re about to tell me that Apple’s first pocket computer was Newton MessagePad, I’m going to stop you right there. MessagePad was never small enough to fit in your pocket—unless you were wearing an overcoat or a suit jacket. Or cargo pants.)
In 2007, when Steve introduced Apple’s second pocket computer, he presented it, not as a computer, but as an iPod plus a phone plus an internet communicator.
(It was about this time that Apple Computer, Inc. dropped the word “Computer” from their corporate name. Within two years, iPhone was bringing in more than half of Apple’s annual revenue.)
In 2015, when Tim Cook introduced Apple’s first strap-on computer, he never managed to find a crisp distillation to describe it.
Apple couldn’t settle on whether to stress fashion (“an expression of who you are”) or function (“the most advanced timepiece ever, a revolutionary way to connect with others, and a comprehensive health and fitness companion.”) The ad was tagged simply, “The Watch is here.” It’s as though they had given up.
Yesterday, when Tim Cook introduced Apple’s second strap-on computer, to my surprise, Apple came right out and called it a computer. “The age of spatial computing is here.” Not VR. Not AR. Not MR. Just out and out computing.
It was a bold choice. Rather than join the long parade of failed AR and VR headsets from Google, Microsoft, Meta, SnapChat, Apple ignored everything that came before and presented Vision Pro simply as a better way to do what we already do on our Mac, iPhone, and TV. Vision Pro doesn’t promise a gateway to fantasy worlds (the VR promise) or a way to slap metadata labels on the objects we encounter in our own world and invite dinosaurs to romp around the living room (the AR promise)—although all of that will be possible—and I expect many such apps to ship when the product arrives next year. Instead, Vision Pro was positioned as an extension of Apple’s existing app ecosystem and the data you already work with.
What’s the killer app? You already have it. Or as the web copy reads, “digital content blends seamlessly with your physical space.”
For all the 3D-ness of the new paradigm, most of what Apple showed consisted of an array of flat, 2D virtual panels and screens floating in the space around you—all displaying familiar apps—web browsing, photos, text chats.
If, however, you want to block out your own space, you have the option to dial it down or shut it out entirely and escape to any real or fantasy environment of your choice. That functionality, while shown in Apple’s presentation, was almost an afterthought. The dominant impressions centered around keeping the experience familiar, not exotic. It was less, “here’s something totally new” and more “here’s something you already know and love—only more and better.”
If you ever wished for a bigger monitor—or more monitors—to work on, Vision Pro provides as much screen real estate as you could possibly want. If you ever wished for a 3D cinema screen at home, Vision Pro will offer you a movie screen that’s magically even bigger than the room. (In one example, they showed an air passenger dialing out the plane to watch an in-flight movie on a giant screen.) Because it presents a separate image directly to each eye, Vision Pro is the first home solution that delivers a compelling 3D experience since the Viewmaster.
(Joanna Stern in the WSJ says she was surprised at how effective the 3D scenes from Avatar were. She added that the ability to take and show 3D home movies was even cooler.)
I thought it was a savvy introduction. Instead of showing us a Star Trek Holodeck version 1.0, Apple showed us the U-I paradigm I saw Tom Cruise working with in Minority Report (2002) and Robert Downey Jr. using in Iron Man (2008)— giant screens controlled by gesture, voice and eye-movement.
The biggest downside (other than cost) is that in order to get there, you have to strap a computer to your face (something no Apple presenter was willing to do during the presentation). Physically, that means dealing with weight and heat and limited battery life. Socially, that means isolation.
On the physical challenges, Apple talked through the materials and design choices they made for comfort and power. I’m eager to see reports from people who have had the thing on for extended periods of time. Joanna Stern, in her review, mentioned having issues after only fifteen minutes, but Apple says, that was largely because they didn’t take the time to get a custom fit. It remains to be seen just how fiddly getting a good fit will be.
On the social challenges, Apple has taken steps to minimize the off-putting social isolation of working behind a mask. One slightly creepy choice is making the front of the headset a screen that can display live video of your eyes to people around you. (They call this feature “Eye Sight”). Looking in, it’s the illusion of transparency.
Another way of dealing with isolation is that VisionPro will subtly alert you when someone approaches.
For all that, I have to expect that headset computing will be more socially isolating than even iPhones and AirPods—which are already the source of countless cartoons, think pieces, and personal annoyances.
A giant 3D movie screen at home sounds brilliant. But less so if only one person can watch it at a time. “Netflix and chill” for one? Hmmm.
For many, the biggest barrier will be cost. Rumors pegged it at $3000. Apple proved the rumors wrong, announcing a price of $3499 USD. (fine print: note that’s a “starting at” price. If you wear glasses, you’ll also have pay for prescription lens inserts from Zeiss Optical. And surely, as with most Apple products, the order form will present configuration options that will drive the price higher. I expect 3D movies and the entertainment magic of games and Disney will also come at a premium. One razor, many blades. Endless opportunities to buy blades.
When Apple introduced Macintosh as “for the rest of us,” at $2495, Jean-Louis Gassée quipped that it was the computer “for the rich of us.” Here we go again. (To be fair, however, in current dollars, the price of the original Mac was equivalent to the price of two Vision Pros.)
Further reading
A roundup of early reactions to the Apple Vision Pro announcement.
Hands on
Joanna Stern (The Wall Street Journal)
“During my 30-minute demo, it weighed down on my nose and made me a bit nauseous. (Apple says these will get better by the time it ships early next year.) But wow…the interface and hand gestures are intuitive, 3-D movies are finally making sense and it really felt like a huge dinosaur broke through a wall right in front of me.”
Matthew Panzarino (TechCrunch)
“I’ve used essentially every major VR headset and AR device since 2013’s Oculus DK1 right up through the latest generations of Quest and Vive headsets….But none of them had the advantages that Apple brings to the table with Apple Vision Pro. Namely, 5,000 patents filed over the past few years and an enormous base of talent and capital to work with. Every bit of this thing shows Apple-level ambition. I don’t know whether it will be the “next computing mode,” but you can see the conviction behind each of the choices made here. No corners cut. Full-tilt engineering on display.”
“The display itself is absolutely bonkers: a 4K display for each eye, with pixels just 23 microns in size. In the short time I tried it, it was totally workable for reading text in Safari (I loaded The Verge, of course), looking at photos, and watching movies. It is easily the highest-resolution VR display I have ever seen…
“…At one point in a full VR Avatar demo I raised my hands to gesture at something, and the headset automatically detected my hands and overlaid them on the screen, then noticed I was talking to someone and had them appear as well. Reader, I gasped. Apple’s also gotten a lot farther with eye tracking and gesture control: eye tracking was pretty solid, and those IR illuminators and side cameras mean you can tap your thumb and index finger together to select things while they’re down in your lap or at your sides. You don’t need to be pointing at anything. It’s pretty cool.”
Kevin Roose (The New York Times)
“if you’d asked me before Monday’s announcement whether I thought Apple’s mixed-reality headset signified the beginning of a huge, earthshaking platform shift, on the order of the original iPhone’s arrival, I would have said no. Bugt…after seeing Apple demonstrate the Vision Pro on Monday — and reading the generally positive reviews from folks who have tested it — I now think it could be a big deal, and possibly even the first hint of a revolutionary new computing platform.”
Healthy Skepticism
“So we can talk about what Vision Pro does now — or, more accurately, “early next year,” when Apple says they’ll go on sale — and what it might do down the road. But my main takeaway from Apple’s debut demo is that these things are goggles. And I have to wonder how many people want to wear goggles of any size, weight, or cost, for any amount of time.”
Under the Hood
“Overall, there are 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones. On the outside, there are two cameras pointing at the real world, and two cameras pointing downward to track your hands. There’s a lidar scanner and a TrueDepth camera.”
“This is, needless to say, the most meaningful manifestation yet of Apple’s ability to integrate hardware and software: while previously that integration manifested itself in a better user experience in the case of a smartphone, or a seemingly impossible combination of power and efficiency in the case of Apple Silicon laptops, in this case that integration makes possible the melding of VR and AR into a single Vision.”
Prospects
Andrew E. Freedman (Tom’s Hardware)
“$3,499 is a lot. While that's not Mac Pro money, Apple is pitching this as a device that people will have in their homes, use to take photos of their families, watch movies and work like they would on their Mac.
But here's the thing. This is WWDC, and it is for developers. Apple is pitching the device months before release, which it typically does with products when it needs to get developers on board. Apple has pitched the Vision Pro as its future, but it can't do that without a boatload of apps.”
Thanks for this, Michael. Not surprising that you of all people could distill this thing and make it grokkable from afar.
You are amazing! And by the way, Peter Kafka and I said the same thing!