Apple’s big event playfully plays down its big announcement with a “And one more thing …” and this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference was no different. The one more thing was Apple’s worst-kept secret. The company that takes a hard line on revealing new products before their official reveal had let information leak out about an upcoming VR headset.
Alas, it was no real surprise when the Vision Pro VR headset was shown on screen. Here was a woman lounging on a sofa, in a beige sack dress and socks, making hand signals in slow motion and, in a departure from all other VR headsets to date, interacting with others in the room while drifting in and out of virtual reality as if in and out of a dream. She senses the presence of another person when they come close, and the headset glass seems to clear to show her eyes. (We are to find out the glass does not clear; a synthesized view of her eyes is projected to the exterior of the glass.)
But that was not what creeped out New York Times reviewer Brian Chen. In testing the device, he had been fooled by an avatar. Apple had meant to impress with an avatar that mimicked every expression of the wearer. Hey, why not? An avatar has no wrinkles, no gray hair. But the reviewer puzzled over whether it real for so long and so hard that he missed the content of the demo and ended up feeling upset that he was played, shown a “deep fake,” an avatar that was at once too real and not real enough.
A Headset Like No Other
I see you see me. Apple’s Vision Pro is designed to allow the user to not be cut off from the world like other VR headsets. Image from Apple video.
It looks like you could wear the Vision Pro all day long while lounging on your sofa—but you cannot. The battery pack, attached by a cord, lasts only 2 hours. Obviously, Apple wanted to minimize the weight of the bulky headset on your head by letting you carry the battery in your pocket. However, I’m not sure my sack dress has pockets.
Gamers, for whom only what is on the inside of the headset is important and what is outside only a distraction, may not consider how they may look, mouth agape, waving a controller, but Apple has decided that its customers are more conscious of appearance. There is no controller for the Vision Pro. We are told all it needs is hand signals, voice commands (You can now say just “Siri” instead of “Hey, Siri”) and with supposedly industry-leading eye tracking that is so precise it can detect when you are looking at an input field, such as in a browser, and let voice to text do the rest.
I guess a keyboard would just mess with the sofa, lounging vibe.
With its careful attention to design, Apple tried very hard not to look as if you are wearing a computer on your head—but yet can’t resist telling you how good the computer on your head is. The claim has merit. The Vison Pro uses Apple’s M2 chip, the mustang that came out of nowhere to beat thoroughbreds Intel and AMD is a chip more than capable of handling multiple sensors, including several for eye-tracking, and what might be the highest resolution display of any VR headset on the market (4K resolution per eye).
The Vision Pro is the third new product introduced in the post-Jobs era. And while Tim Cook has been applauded for being a steady hand on the wheel that has continued Apple’s cachet with consumers and investors, Steve Jobs, who pioneered personal computers, GUI, music listening devices and smartphones, is a hard act to follow. During Cooks’ leadership, Apple has introduced AirTags, $28 devices that help you find your keys and other personal objects and a smartwatch that starts at $400—which created a smartwatch category that it still rules.
Finally, a hit.Was the Vision Pro rushed to market to prove Cook was no one-hit wonder?
Clearly, Cook is all in on AR/VR. He told university students last year that they will soon “wonder how you lived your life without augmented reality, just like today you wonder: How did people like me grow up without the Internet?”
And so, Apple plunges into the AR/VR market. It’s not the first of the FANG* companies to go there. Meta (formerly Facebook) has tried very hard to get VR headsets into the mainstream but found success only among affluent gamers (practically a contradiction in terms) managing to sell 20 million relatively cheap ($400) Quest 2 headsets. Compare that to Apple iPhones, which sell at a rate of 200 million every year at an average price of $800.
AR/VR headset sales are in decline. If there was a revolution in AR/VR, Apple may have missed it.
That may have been on the minds of a group of dissenters interviewed by the New York Times, newsworthy if only showing even one high-level employee willing to make public their dissent with Apple leadership. Here were eight people who said either the market is not ready for AR/VR headsets, or at least headsets that are too expensive, citing a decline in consumer spending. In short, AR/VR is a bust without the boom.
How Much?
Apple has given itself some time to get the Vision Pro into production. The company doesn’t expect to be shipping units until next year and has announced a price of $3,500, putting the Vision Pro at the highest end of the AR and VR hardware market. But that should surprise no one. Apple is known for quality workmanship and materials—and is universally recognized as a luxury brand able to command premium prices. Apple matching the price of an existing headset from another company would have been a shocker.
The VR headset with the best specs to date is Lenovo’s, last seen at Autodesk University. Lenovo, anticipating Apple’s announcement, tried to upstage Apple with the introduction of its ThinkReality VRX headset, with 2K resolution per eye and integrated (not tethered) battery available at prices starting at less than half of the Apple unit ($1,299).