Apple announced its highly anticipated mixed reality headset Apple Vision Pro yesterday at the WWDC. The headset is priced at $3,499, which is super expensive and out of reach for many consumers. But it does appear this device is more work-focused as shown in the video above. With this device, you can type on your Macbook pro and have like 10 monitors. In that regard, it doesn’t seem that expensive. The headset is controlled by eye movements, gestures and voice, is equipped with impressive audio and near 8K resolution and has a transparent see-through lens that can be shuttered for a full VR experience. The headset won’t ship until early 2024 but reviews from people who actually tried the device indicate very positive user experience as shown in the video below. I am not an AR/VR enthusiast but I will buy it when it comes out to see if it is worth the hype. Previously, I got a Meta Quest 2. The headset was too heavy to wear. After playing Beat Saber for like 5 minutes, I took it off and collapsed on the floor due to vertigo. It was not a pleasant experience. I don’t have very high hopes for the Apple headset but it does seem it will be more like wearing a ski goggle instead of a brick.
The AR/VR device is a very complex and expensive project to execute but Apple’s strategy of coming up with a good headset with a hefty price as the first version makes sense. They are probably not going to sell a lot of these $3,499 headsets but developers can start building software on top of the new operating system called visionOS. Apple can gather meaningful consumer feedback and reactions to make the headset less intrusive. The hardware will get better, cheaper and more comfortable over time. In a decade, I could see they sell their AR device at less than $1,000 with amazing capabilities and a lot of useful apps on it. When the Apple Watch first came out, I wasn’t a big fan as the battery life was too short and the user experience was a bit clunky. But many generations later, Apple Watch is now a delightful device to wear with great utility and it becomes a device I cannot live without. Apple Vision will probably follow a very similar trajectory. I hope to revisit this post in 2030 and be amazed by the technological progress we are about to experience in the 2020s.
