There have been multiple signs suggesting that Apple’s Mixed Reality Vision Pro headset is struggling to gain traction. This is due to both the very high price and the heavy design which limits the amount of time most people can wear them. What does Vision Pro’s struggles mean for Apple’s efforts in future virtual reality and augmented reality projects?
Interest in Vision Pro
The Vision Pro was a completely new product category for Apple, so interest was high when the device first launched in February, but that didn’t last long. The Vision Pro is definitely impressive, watching a butterfly fly by so close you can almost touch it or seeing the rough skin of an elephant walking right by you is mind-blowing, but most of the magic is It disappears quickly for people.
Early reviews found the Vision Pro to be difficult to wear long enough to incorporate into a real-world workflow, and it was difficult to find use cases to justify its $3,500 price tag. The Verge‘s Nilay Patel found Vision Pro uncomfortably isolated. wall street journal‘s Joanna Stern felt nauseous every time she watched the limited amount of Apple immersive video content. Critics agreed that watching TV and movies is one of the best use cases, but that would result in an expensive TV that you wouldn’t be able to watch with other people.
A few months later, my feelings haven’t changed much. When the Vision Pro was released, there was a lot of demand at the Apple Store and long lines of people wanting to try it out. However, interest waned after the demonstrations ended. As of April, there were reports that enthusiasm for the Vision Pro had dropped significantly, and in July, there were reports of a decline in sales.
At MacRumors, we saw several people who bought the Vision Pro at launch, but these headsets are kept in a case and used to occasionally watch Apple’s latest immersive videos or update to the new visionOS software. With the exception of , it is basically no longer taken out. MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera uses the Vision Pro about once a week to watch content, but he only gets about two hours of use out of it because it’s a pain to keep using it after that. MacRumors Editor-in-Chief Eric Slivka and I have yet to find a compelling use case. It also doesn’t have enough engaging content to use weekly.
I still can’t wear the Vision Pro for more than two hours because it’s too uncomfortable. I’m also prone to motion sickness, so moving around too much can sometimes make me feel sick. But the biggest reason I don’t use Vision Pro is because I don’t want to shut out what’s around me. Sure, it’s great for watching movies, TV shows, and YouTube videos on a 30-foot-tall screen, but it requires you to isolate yourself. I can’t watch it with other people and I feel really guilty when my cat comes over asking for attention and I’m distracted by the headset.
Watching movies on the Vision Pro doesn’t get any better than having a 65-inch TV in front of your couch. I’m a gamer, but I feel like there aren’t a lot of interesting games out there, and a lot of the content available doesn’t make playing mobile games very intuitive. The best use case I’ve found is to use it as a display for your Mac, but that’s limited to one display and not enough compared to a two display setup to justify the discomfort while working. It’s not a major improvement.
Beyond our own experience with the Vision Pro, traffic on the MacRumors site shows that interest in this headset is low. If you publish a story about Vision Pro, people won’t read it. For example, just yesterday I wrote a Vision Pro article about the first short film about headsets, and it was the least-trafficked article of the day. It probably wasn’t worth my time and it’s not an unusual event.
There teeth Vision Pro is an enterprise use case, and some people love this headset. So there’s some hope for this, and Apple is marketing it to businesses. Some examples from Apple and others:
- porsche – Porsche engineers use Vision Pro to visualize vehicle data in real time.
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines – KLM Airlines uses Vision Pro to train technicians on new engine models.
- law enforcement – California police departments are testing Vision Pro for surveillance operations.
- medicine – A medical team in the UK used Vision Pro for two spinal surgeries. Doctors in India also reportedly used it for laparoscopic surgery, and orthopedic surgeons in Brazil used it for shoulder surgery. UCSD is testing the use of the Vision Pro app for minimally invasive surgery.
- science – MIT students created an app that uses Vision Pro’s gesture support to control a robot.
Tim Cook said in May that “half” of Fortune 100 companies have purchased Vision Pros, but it’s unclear whether those Vision Pro headsets are actually being used or what they’re being used for. He said that.
confusion about what happens next
Vision Pro sales fell short of Apple’s expectations, leading to some confusing rumors about Apple’s next move. Initially, there were rumors that Apple was developing two new versions of Vision Pro. One is a cheaper version and the other is a direct successor to the current model.
In April, bloombergMark Garman said that Apple won’t launch a new version of the Vision Pro before the end of 2026 because the company is struggling to find a way to lower the cost of its headsets.
In June, information Apple said it has suspended development of the second-generation Vision Pro to focus on cheaper models. Later that month, Garman said Apple could make the next Vision Pro dependent on tethered iPhones and Macs, which could reduce costs, and could make cheaper heads available as early as late 2025. He said a set may be released.
In late September, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple would begin producing a new version of Vision Pro in late 2025, possibly for a late 2025 launch. He claims that the most substantial upgrade is the new M5 chip, which has roughly the same specs, design, and price, but offers significantly more computing power. This is in contrast to Kuo’s February rumor that Apple would not release new models until 2027.
None of these rumors really match up, so Apple’s next steps in AR/VR development are unclear. Kuo said a new Vision Pro with a faster chip will arrive at the end of 2025, but Gurman and information I think you can get a cheaper version of the headset. Even Apple may not have made a firm decision on what happens next yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how its AR/VR strategy evolves.
AR smart glasses
Even before Apple announced the Vision Pro, there were rumors about the development of lightweight augmented reality smart glasses. AR glasses are actually a long-term goal for Apple, and the Vision Pro is a stepping stone. Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken extensively about Apple’s interest in augmented reality, calling it something “big and deep” that people will eventually look back on and wonder how they ever lived without it. I call it a thing.
Apple had hoped to release AR smart glasses as early as 2023 before delaying the project to 2025, but unfortunately, development has been delayed “indefinitely” to January 2023. Ta. Garman said Apple stopped work due to technical issues, and some Apple employees don’t think Apple will ship the AR glasses.
In late 2023, Garman stated that smart glasses would be “at least” four years away. During the development of Vision Pro, Apple realized that it was impossible to build AR glasses with enough power. For the glasses to work, they must provide full iPhone performance while using 10 times less power without getting too hot. Apple’s work on smart glasses is being done with “limited resources,” with most of the development going toward Vision Pro, which lays the foundation for a future powered by AR technology.
Full-scale development of standalone AR glasses is currently on hold, so it’s not entirely clear when hardware miniaturization and chip efficiency will reach the point where Apple’s vision for AR glasses becomes a reality.
Back in 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the technology didn’t exist to enable AR smart glasses “in a quality way,” and that doesn’t seem to have changed since then. We probably won’t start hearing any serious reports about Apple’s work on augmented reality glasses until near the end of the decade.
If Apple continues to fund new versions of the Vision Pro and improves its product line like it did with the Apple Watch, there’s a future for lightweight glasses that combine the power of an iPhone with the greatness of Vision. looks promising. professional.
meta smart glasses
Last month, Facebook’s parent company Meta unveiled Orion augmented reality smart glasses. Although the glasses have very thick frames, they look more like regular glasses than any mixed reality headset on the market.
MetaorionMeta’s Orion glasses have been in development for more than five years, but Meta is not yet ready to launch. Although these are still in the prototyping stage, Meta is testing with employees and select external audiences to “learn, iterate, and build” toward a consumer AR glasses product line. There is. Meta’s glasses are not standalone and require a wristband for control and a computing pack in the room.
It costs Meta about $10,000 to make a pair of Orion glasses, so this provides some context about the hurdles Apple will need to overcome to bring AR glasses to market. Meta cannot sell glasses at that price point, and it will be several years before the price is low enough to attract consumers.
something in between
Meta also has affordable Ray-Ban AI glasses, but they don’t have augmented reality capabilities. Apple is considering similar products and could launch products like Ray-Ban glasses in the future.
meta ray ban glassesSunglasses with speakers have also become popular in recent years, so Apple could make a simple pair of glasses with a camera, Siri integration, and built-in speakers for listening to music. Health functions can also be included. Currently, Apple is still considering such a product, so it’s unclear whether it’s something that will make it to the actual development stage.
distant future
If Apple can master AR smart glasses, the technology could eventually reach a stage where even smaller things are possible. Ming-Chi Kuo claimed in 2021 that Apple could launch augmented reality contact lenses in the 2030s, but that prediction is unrealistic now that even high-quality AR glasses can’t miniaturize the technology enough. Sounds like a target.
your thoughts
Do you have Vision Pro and are you still using it? Do you wear AR smart glasses or just glasses with a camera and speaker? Let us know in the comments.
