Apple’s AR initiative has been a long time coming. We first discovered that Apple was interested in this space when the iPhone 8 Plus showcased some new AR features courtesy of the company’s new ARKit. It seemed unlikely even then that Apple’s vision for AR was limited to just the iPhone and that the company had something bigger cooking in the background.
Fast forward six years and the company just announced the Apple Vision Pro. While Apple would like you to refer to it as a “space computer,” in the end, what it really is is a very sophisticated AR headset. The Vision Pro is also Apple’s first major product category since the HomePod launched in 2017. But the Vision Pro isn’t meant to be just another accessory or side hustle. This is bigger than the HomePods and AirPods and even the Apple Watch. No, for Apple, Vision Pro is the fourth major product after iPhone, iPad and Mac.
The company devoted a good chunk of its WWDC 2023 keynote to the product. Many things have been discussed and I will finally get there, but there were two things that stood out to me the most.
First, the reiteration of the idea that Vision Pro is a standalone product, not an accessory. During the keynote, you almost never see the Vision Pro being used in conjunction with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. This isn’t like the Apple Watch that relies on the iPhone to function. Nor is it like a VR headset that needs to be plugged into a PC or console. The Vision Pro can exist and function independently of your own.
In addition to not requiring other devices to work, Vision Pro was almost positioned as their replacement. You can call people from it, you can access apps, you can watch movies and play games, and you can do your work. Make no mistake, this is not a companion device designed to augment your phone, tablet, or computer. It is designed to eventually replace them.
But that’s not easy to do if it’s just something you wear once in a while. This is why it seemed like everyone was wearing the headset all the time, which is the other thing I noticed. In this alternate universe that Apple demonstrated on stage, people are walking around with Vision Pro on them at all times, even when they’re not actively using it. Apple has never actually shown people using them outdoors aside from on planes and for taking 3D photos and videos, so it’s assumed you might still need to use your iPhone for now, at least until Apple realizes a more compact version of the Vision Pro that you never take off.
I’ll come back to the negatives of this, but first let’s look at some of the things Apple has demonstrated, starting with the good stuff. For me, easily the best aspect of using this headset, sorry, space calculator it’s for watching movies. The concept of having a screen that can completely fill your vision along with 3D audio sounds incredible.
I also like that it makes 3D movies at home possible again; as one of the few people who likes well-implemented 3D over 2D, this thrilled me. Since the 3D here is delivered using two displays instead of a single display and 3D glasses that reduce the brightness of the parallax, the experience would be much, much better.
It also feels more comfortable than watching on a TV, since you’re no longer looking at a fixed point and can turn and swivel your head in any direction to reduce fatigue, and even lie back if you like while the video stays centered in your vision.
The game looks just as fun. Admittedly, there aren’t a ton of games right now designed to run on Apple Silicon, and VR headsets for platforms like PlayStation or PC haven’t exactly taken off in a big way as content remains scarce. However, if Apple puts its might behind it, we could see some big name developers bring popular titles to Vision Pro. There’s native support for Unity (and there are a ton of Unity games out there) and the arrival of popular titles like Death Stranding for Apple Silicon raise hopes for a more serious gaming conversation that Apple is involved in. Perhaps, Vision Pro can finally be the gaming platform Mac never could.
I also see huge applications for Vision Pro in fields like education, medicine, and engineering. These are fields that can greatly benefit from a real-time 3D environment where the user can directly manipulate objects in front of them rather than on a computer or tablet screen. Think of Tony Stark using Jarvis to work on his new Iron Man suit and you know what I’m thinking. There may not be Jarvis here and Siri is the furthest thing from it, but there’s no denying that it won’t be nice to work on large 3D models or study them as if they were physical objects.
But not everything looked so impressive. Apple also showed lots of demos of people just using regular 2D desktop apps for work. To me, this no longer seemed intuitive, fun, or magical, also, to use compared to normal monitors connected to a normal PC. Just because you put a Microsoft Excel document in 3D space, doesn’t exactly make it any less complicated to use. I would much rather use my computer than wear a headset. Unless, again, the assumption here is that you have the headset on anyway (because of course you do), then why not use it for everything, including tedious office work?
But where the presentation really went off the rails for me was Apple descending into uncanny valley territory and doing really silly things. There were parts of this presentation that felt more like an SNL parody skit but were completely real and delivered with a truly straight face.
For example, creating a fake 3D rendering of your face and then showing it to people looking at you is beyond creepy, as is using it for video calls because otherwise they wouldn’t actually be able to see you. Apple has used it in many cases, such as showing someone talking to another person in front of her and, more depressingly, a father playing with her children.
There was also a demonstration of the 3D capture feature, where you can use Vision Pro’s cameras to capture photos and videos in 3D so you can relive them later.
What struck me as incredibly out of this world is that in all of these cases the Vision Pro wearer is interacting with others who are not wearing the headset. Apple went to great lengths to make this interaction seem normal, except that in each case it felt like the wearer was either in a coma or lost in some other world while the people around them desperately tried to feel some sort of connection with this person. 3D video of a child’s birthday party looked good until you realize the father was in the corner recording it through his headphones while all his family could see was a fake version, rendered in 3D. half of his face.
One could argue that this isn’t too far from the current reality of people glued to their phones. But I thought we all agreed it was a bad thing. This includes Apple, which introduced Screen Time not too long ago so both you and your kids can limit the amount of time you spend on your phones and, I don’t know, maybe go outside and hit some weed. But not only is the Vision Pro more intimate and harder to put down than a phone, the company has also actively encouraged walking around wearing it all day without ever taking it off.
This brings me back to my earlier observation that the Vision Pro is only designed to be worn all the time. Make your calls through it, watch your movies, play games and do your work. You also apparently creepily talk about it with your family or take pictures of them as your kids grow up without seeing half of your face. And then maybe when they’re old enough they too can hide half their face from the world.
That may sound a bit dramatic, but I found it odd that Apple seemed somewhat oblivious. The company apparently went the AR route versus VR, so the wearer was still in touch with their surroundings and went as far as having a screen outside so others could see a facsimile of your face . But these things inherently detach you from your surroundings and are probably the last thing people need when we are already so dependent on the things we currently have.
Part of me, however, wants to see where this ends. You can find similarities in other products, but we’ve never had anything like this before. There is obviously huge potential to build apps that leverage the platform. Disney CEO Bob Iger was practically drooling on stage as he thought of various ways to take your money. I’m sure somewhere in Disney HQ they’re having this exact conversation from Ready Player One. I’m looking forward to trying 3D pop-up ads.
And let’s not even get started on what the adult entertainment industry is going to do with this. Apple would never talk about this, but I’m sure they know as well as anyone that once the porn industry approves of your product, it becomes an overnight success.
This finally brings us to the price. For all the hardware inside, much of which is brand new and custom-designed for this specific product, the price is perfectly fair. Plus, Apple clearly thinks it can replace your phone, tablet, and PC, so it’s only fair that it costs as much as all three combined. I’m honestly surprised that it costs only $3499.
Snark aside, I think on a technological level, this is a very interesting product. But I’m also concerned with the social implications of using this in the intended way and what it will do to a society that is already becoming increasingly distant from one another physically. I hope I don’t see the day where people in the same house choose to talk to each other via Apple Vision Pro instead of face-to-face.
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