Last month, Apple revealed its long-awaited headset device, Apple Vision Pro. To those who follow Apple rumors, this announcement was no surprise and has been anticipated for years. But the official announcement has spurred a lot of discussion in almost every circle.
As the resident Apple enthusiast in my friend group, I’ve definitely had a lot of thoughts on the new product. So many to the point where I’ve divided them up into sections, so feel free to skip to the sections that might interest you the most.
The Price
Let’s tackle the elephant in the room first: the $3,500 price tag. I expected the price to be about $3,000, so even I was a bit surprised at the price. But it is important to acknowledge that this is probably not a product meant for general consumers. I believe Apple is creating a high-price, low-volume product.
What does that mean? Let me give an example. When Tesla began making cars, their first car was the Tesla Roadster. It started at $80,000 and could go up to $120,000.¹ It was very-high-price, very-low-volume. Later, they made the Model S, which was high-price, and low-volume. And eventually, they made the Model 3 and Y, which are (relatively) low-price, high-volume, starting at $40,240.² The cool thing is, not only are the Model 3 and Y cheaper than the original Roadster, but they are arguably much better cars as well.
All of that to say, I believe that this product is for trailblazers (or as Apple might call them, “Pros”) and that Apple will eventually make more models at cheaper price points. The role of the trailblazer is often thankless. In exchange for getting a product sooner, it’s often less supported by third parties at launch, not as good as later iterations, and more expensive than later iterations (albeit not always). I would personally wait until one of those later models before picking one up myself.
The Look
From a purely aesthetic perspective, I think it looks fine. What does an ideal face-mounted computer look like? I’m not sure, but it was always going to be an uphill battle because it covers someone’s face. Apple Vision Pro’s design is probably the best head-mounted computer I’ve seen so far, though the outer-facing display does give me uncanny valley vibes.
I appreciate that it doesn’t look super bulky, which is likely a testament to Apple Silicon. I’ve heard a lot of people say it looks ridiculous when worn, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know where they were coming from. But I do have to point out that when AirPods were revealed in 2016, a lot of people said they looked ridiculous. Today, AirPods are easily a norm in our society. Looks are always subjective, but it’s hard to deny that AirPods have been very successful for Apple.
The Name
I’ll be blunt. I’m not a fan of the name. I wish they just called it “Apple Vision,” but I think I at least understand why they called it what they did.
Everyone has their own theory, but I believe Apple uses the word “Pro” whenever they feel a product isn’t made for general audiences.³ Typically, the products have more technical features that many won’t care about. For example, the Pro-lineup of iPhones and iPads have ProMotion, which give the displays dynamic refresh rates.
I assume they’ll make a lower-priced “Apple Vision” to accompany their Pro model in the future. Regardless, “Apple Vision Pro” is a mouthful for the first product in a brand new product category. It feels quite pretentious to give it the “Pro” moniker when it hasn’t really earned it through other iterations. If I had it my way, I would’ve made this the “Apple Vision” and called the lower-priced model the “Apple Vision SE.”
The Input Method
Input is the way the user interacts with a device, and it’s an extremely important consideration when designing any piece of consumer technology. It has to be intuitive and non-intrusive. That’s easier said than done, especially when taking things like accessibility into mind. That said, everything I’ve heard from reviewers seems to indicate that Apple Vision Pro’s input is genuinely revolutionary. The idea of using your eyes as a cursor does sound impressive. I can’t properly give my full thoughts on this aspect of the device without trying it on myself, which I have not had the opportunity to do so as of writing.
That said, I must commend Apple’s engineers for going the extra mile of implementing controls that don’t require a physical controller. Steve Jobs famously mocked the idea of using a stylus with the iPhone at its original reveal, and I think requiring a physical controller of some kind would’ve clashed with one of the iPhone’s sacred rules.
The Fluff
I think it’s fair to say the reveal’s most underwhelming moment was with Disney’s Bob Iger explaining the potential of Apple Vision Pro for Disney content. This section reeked of the Wii U reveal. Lots of one-trick ideas that might seem cool at first glance, but have no real-world practicality. The biggest offenders being the Marvel What If…? sequence, Mickey Mouse leaping out of a poster, and that Disneyland parade demo.
The Potential
The highlights of the presentation for me were the moments where it felt like a feature brought something genuinely fresh to the stage. Here are some of my favorites.
Panoramas
Having a panorama physically wrap around you seems really cool for no other reason than breathing new life into photos that have been in your library for the past decade. Panoramas have been a feature since the iPhone 5, and the feature was designed to show off that iPhone’s (at the time) large screen. To take a photo from 2012 and have it behave in a way that wasn’t even on the drawing board back then is really cool to me.
Mac Display
If you look at your Mac, Apple Vision Pro will create a larger virtual display and turn off the Mac’s physical display. This effectively gives you a large, private display for your Mac. I love this feature because it shows Apple’s maintained focus on Continuity and it’s a feature that really isn’t possible without a head-mounted display.
Theater Mode
It’s a bit gimmicky, but I think this one has some utility. If you want to watch a movie, Apple Vision Pro can black out your surroundings and project the movie on a massive virtual screen, similar to how it would look in a movie theater. This can be nice if you want to watch a movie on the big screen when someone else is using the TV or if you don’t have a big TV due to space constraints.
FaceTime
Believe it or not, Digital Personas in FaceTime were on my wishlist for this headset. As a reminder, a Digital Persona is effectively a photorealistic 3D model of the user that can be used in FaceTime calls. A lot of people seemed weirded out by this at first, but I personally am glad the feature exists.
First off, given how much Apple has used its Memoji avatars in its marketing since its inception, I was really worried Apple would call it a day by having one of these floating heads represent the user in FaceTime calls.
Secondly, this means no more bad hair days on FaceTime.
And finally, I think this has the potential to be the next big evolution for FaceTime. FaceTime is the gold standard for non-enterprise video chatting. People love its simplicity and the fact it just works out of the box. With time and a lot of updates, Apple might be able to get FaceTime to effectively put the person you’re speaking to in the same room as you. No window borders or green screen backgrounds, they’re just there. I think that could be amazing and really meaningful to people who live far apart from their friends and family. Purists may say that a Digital Persona is no substitute for vanilla video chat, but I will personally reserve judgment until I see it with my own eyes. At the end of the day, this is a hypothetical feature that is years away from release if Apple has any intention of pursuing it.
The Foreshadowing
In 2014, Apple unveiled an iOS 8 feature called “Tap to Talk.” This allows users to send audio messages in iMessage. This seems insignificant at first, however, it foreshadowed an important new device for Apple: the Apple Watch. It’s easier to speak a message into a wrist-mounted computer rather than type it out on such a small screen. I believe Apple added this feature to iOS knowing it would be useful on the Apple Watch when it was released less than a year later.
So, did Apple do this with their latest new product category? I believe they did.
You could pull a lot of examples (AR and Spatial Audio to name two), but I personally believe the most overlooked was Apple’s push for passkeys. Passkeys are a form of web authentication designed to replace traditional passwords. They’re based on the WebAuthn standard being created by the W3C, so it’s not restricted to Apple’s platforms.⁴ That said, Apple made significant strides in making them more accessible to users in last year’s release of iOS 16.⁵
But how is this foreshadowing? Apple Vision Pro has several main ways to input text. These include looking at a text field and speaking what you want to type, using the virtual keyboard, and using a physical Bluetooth keyboard. These are fine solutions for general text input, but passwords are a completely different ballgame. They’re case-sensitive and use special characters. You don’t want to be speaking your password out loud just to enter it and you don’t want to break out a Bluetooth keyboard just to enter your password. As for the virtual keyboard, it should work fine, but I have no grasp on how well people will type on it. This is where passkeys come in.
Instead of typing a password, you would use Vision Pro’s Optic ID to authenticate. It’s faster, more convenient, and more secure than typing a traditional password. And Apple’s new headset is a great incentive for web devs to make the switch. It’s a seamless way to log in to websites.
It’s important to note that passkeys and WebAuthn are still relatively new, and many sites have yet to adopt it as a password replacement. In my experience, most sites that have adopted it choose to use it as a password supplement rather than a replacement, usually in the form of a 2-factor authentication check. These changes don’t happen overnight. Apple will be adding passkeys to their Apple IDs in the coming months, so perhaps we will see more sites make the switch after that.
The Battery
A 2-hour battery is practically unheard of by today’s standards. It’s definitely a hard pill to swallow, and it will take a few generations for that battery estimate to get better, but realistically, most use cases of Apple Vision Pro are stationary, so you’d likely be plugged into power anyways. When you look at the use cases for Apple Vision Pro, you probably don’t want to walk around more than a few feet with it on. I assume that the AR tracking would become glitchy the faster you go. I also assume that spatial computing is significantly more computationally expensive to render than what phones have to render normally.
To be clear, I don’t want to excuse the low battery life for a $3,500 headset, but I do want to point out that a 2-hour battery with this device is significantly different than a 2-hour battery in a smartphone.
Finally, I want to touch on the battery pack itself. Since there’s no battery on the headset, this battery pack slips into your pocket. I was weirded out by this choice, but can partially appreciate it. Outside of reducing head weight and making battery replacements easier, I also just prefer not having a battery strapped to my head. I say this when we’ve already normalized that exact thing with AirPods.
But head-mounted batteries are a legitimate hurdle for the adoption of head-mounted devices. With Google Glass, the battery would always heat up when using the device for a few seconds. Even if the battery getting warm was normal behavior, the thought of it doing anything dangerous was not a thought you wanted to have. It’s something Apple likely wants to avoid outright, and if this is the solution, I’m fine with it.
The Why
All of that leaves one question: why? Why make a product like this?
I believe it’s for one reason: to kill the iPhone. I believe Apple wants to kill the iPhone the same way the iPhone killed the iPod. It won’t be overnight, but over many years, maybe decades.
I believe it’s the reason Meta has been investing so much into their Metaverse. Facebook was made popular thanks to the iPhone, but they know that something will eventually replace smartphones. They want to kill smartphones before someone else does so they can live on.
The Final Verdict
In my opinion, Steve Jobs did a better job of selling the Apple Vision Pro in 2005 than Apple did last month. He did so when giving his thoughts on virtual reality and why it hadn’t taken off yet.
“The fundamental problem here is that headphones are a miraculous thing. You put a pair of headphones [on] and you get the same experience you get with a great pair of speakers, right? There’s no such thing as headphones for video, right? […] And until somebody invents that, you’re gonna have these opposing restraints.”
Steve Jobs
Headphones for video. I love this because it gets the point across in a way everyone can understand. It’s not as flowery as “spatial computing,” but it’s simple and friendly, much like what the original iMac and iPhone strove to be. The original iMac came in fun colors and the original iPhone had one button on the front. Apple Vision Pro’s design is dark glass and cold aluminum obstructing a human face. Even its name doesn’t feel friendly. These are design choices that can work fine for a well-established product line, but not as much for an entirely new product category. Especially not when that product category has been alluded to in dystopian science fiction media for decades.
To conclude this post, I want to say I’m cautiously interested in the future of Apple Vision Pro. I think it’s a product with great potential that could change the world if executed properly. And most of all, I look forward to seeing what developers can pull off with it. That said, I don’t plan on buying one anytime soon, but I look forward to future additions to the Apple Vision lineup.
Citations and Notes
¹ Blanco, S. (2006, July 20). Tesla roadster unveiled in Santa Monica. Autoblog. https://www.autoblog.com/2006/07/20/tesla-roadster-unveiled-in-santa-monica
² Price based on purchase price of a non-inventory base model 2023 Tesla Model 3 before tax-incentives and any other fees as of July 23, 2023.
³ Disclaimer: Don’t ask me about what “Ultra” means.
⁴ The W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium, which maintains standards for the World Wide Web. When they back something, it’s a fairly reputable stamp of approval.
⁵ Apple had a WWDC video last year about Passkeys. If you’re interested in the technology, I recommend giving it a watch.