What’s the Point of Apple’s Vision Pro VR Headset?
In case you missed it, Apple released their latest incredibly-overpriced-yet-so-magical-it-will-literally-rewrite-the-course-of-human-history product (sarcasm emphasized) today, a $3,500 pair of ski goggles.
Ok ok, it’s actually their long-anticipated virtual reality (VR) headset. And as impressive and beautiful as the demo looked, I couldn’t help but wonder, who actually cares?
Like seriously, who is genuinely interested in purchasing something like that? Seriously, I want to know.
To me it just came across as nothing more than a glorified Apple TV.
But you can take 3D pictures and videos of your kids with it!
Clearly, those who pitched that idea either have plenty of money to buy a bunch of these things, or they’ve never had kids at home who break everything they touch. I sure as shooting know that I would never in a million years even have this in the same room as my 3-year-old and 1-month-old. Kinda kills the whole picture-taking idea.
But it’s a totally immersive movie watching experience!
Ok, sure. But did you notice that not a single person watching something in the demo videos was watching with anyone else? They were always alone. Call me crazy, but most of the time when I’m watching something, a big part of the experience is sharing it with my wife and/or kids. So, I either spend ~$4,000 (can’t forget taxes) to have that experience watching something by myself on very rare occasions, or I splash out and buy some for the whole family (yeah, no). But Apple also didn’t say if you’d be able to watch the same thing together at the same time with someone else. So, it’s not meant for non-single people?
Side note, my buddy Derek Kessler really expands on this point well in his article on the Vision Pro.
But it will completely change the way you work!
Um, no. I already spend enough time every day staring at my laptop for work. I can’t think of anything more depressing that strapping some ski goggles to my face every day to stare at all my work assignments in even bigger screens. Honestly, I just see myself becoming more distracted than anything.
The conference calling did look pretty cool, so if you do that all the time (which, I don’t know of ANY company that uses FaceTime for conference calls), or if you’re in one of those uniquely niche industries that could actually benefit from something like this, then sure, it could really help you. For me, as a writer, and for most people I know who spend most of their day typing away on their laptops, I don’t see how it would be helpful.
And they barely mentioned gaming, which, in the consumer market, is by far the biggest use case for VR so far.
I just don’t get the angle here. Clearly Apple has enough money and has done enough research (or at least is under enough pressure from shareholders) to think they can actually make money in this market — and not just a little bit of money; Apple stopped making the Mini iPhones because it was only bringing in a $100 million a year or something like that. They only play to win.
Even with all this market research and money behind the Vision Pro, I can’t help but thinking they’ve just completely forgotten about Microsoft’s HoloLens. Anyone remember that thing? It was supposed to revolutionize the AR/VR realm.
Sure, Apple’s looks a whole lot better, but the interface looks pretty similar, the price is much higher, and last I looked, Micrsoft hasn’t really sold a whole lot of them, especially in the consumer market.
So, what’s the point? I know they’ve already priced themselves out of the vast majority of customers, so what’s the plan? Will we see an Apple Vision SE version in a few years?
