Initial Apple Vision Pro Thoughts

It looks interesting! I’d love to prototype some things for it.

In their demo video, they showed people watching a movie at home. I’ve watched a few things on Netflix with my Oculus Go, but that’s it. I don’t think this will be a common use case. When I think about movies or TV, it’s almost always watching with other people, so everyone would need a device. I also realize that with pass-through, they have improved the isolating aspects of wearing an XR device, but you’re still wearing something and seeing things that other people in the environment aren’t seeing.

They featured using it on a flight, and while it appeals in a bunch of ways, I also think it’s unlikely. I haven’t seen any existing VR headsets (nor cardboard style with a phone) on flights yet. Maybe if you were already bringing the headset with you, but it’s a large item to keep track of when traveling. It will be interesting when an XR headset is seen in transportation like phones, laptops, and the Nintendo Switch are today.

The lack of controllers is a big step up from existing headsets; it reminds me of the choice to go with capacitive screens for the iPhone and iPad. Steve Jobs was against the stylus for mobile devices, and going all-in with hand gestures in XR could be that same leap forward in usability.

One use case I think has a lot of potential is Fitness+ and the Apple Vision Pro. Apple could make virtual fitness classes of the future with these two combined. They own the content creation side of their fitness platform, so they could do advanced capture (3D or panorama) and really make you feel like you are in the room with instructors. They could also make custom virtual environments, and this was shown a little for meditation in their presentation. I also imagine things like timers or animated instructions being placed in the environment so you can see them when the instructors are not in view. You would feel like your world was part of the workout. I hope they are working on it!

These are all opinions and predictions, and I look forward to seeing how things turn out.