Apple’s Vision for the Future of Personal Computing
What marketers should know about Vision Pro at launch
Last Friday, Apple’s spatial computing headset, Vision Pro, officially hit retail and started shipping pre-orders. As Apple’s first new-category device since the HomePod in February 2018, consumer interest among early adopters and Apple fans has been predictably high. People lined up outside some Apple Store locations to get their hands, and eyes, on the Vision Pro, though nothing approaching the level of the early iPhone launch days. Even before the official launch, Apple had reportedly sold approximately 200,000 units in presale; Overseas, the $3,499 headset was soon being resold for over $5,000.
Now that we are nearly a week away from the frenzy of the launch day, various reviews and related announcements have been permeating the techno-sphere. Much ink has been spilled over speculating on how Vision Pro might shift the paradigm of personal computing, entertainment, and digital interaction. Based on this initial wave of reactions and hot takes, some key aspects about this much-anticipated headset — including its primary use case, its user experience, and its impact on the mixed reality ecosystem — are becoming a bit more defined. By extension, its long-term impact on the media landscape and consumer expectations around immersive technologies is also starting to emerge.
For brands and marketers, the launch of Vision Pro marks an exciting new beginning for the immersive media landscape. Although the $3,499 price tag creates an obvious barrier to entry for regular consumers, resulting in a more targeted audience for this first iteration, the Vision Pro offers more than a glimpse into the future of immersive experiences enabled by spatial computing, which will unlock unprecedented opportunities for brands to engage consumers in a fully interactive, 3D environment. The high level of engagement and immersion offered by Vision Pro could redefine the effectiveness of digital advertising, creating new metrics and benchmarks for success.
But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In order to get to that future, we have to understand Vision Pro as it is today.
The Primary Use Case: Business or Leisure?
The adoption trajectory of new technology often hinges on their primary use case, whether for business or leisure. For example, Apple Watch floundered around for the first couple of generations until settling on fitness and health tracking as the primary use embraced by the market. Personal computers first gained prominence in the workplace before becoming household staples. Given Vision Pro’s high price tag, some have suggested that it may follow a similar path to PC and achieve wider consumer adoption through the enterprise market. However, based on the initial reactions, it seems that entertainment has edged out productivity as the more compelling use case for the current iteration of Vision Pro.
In his Vision Pro review on Stratechery, analyst Ben Thompson noted that the productivity experience on Vision Pro was a “disappointment.” The device’s operating system, visionOS, struggles with multi-window management, particularly with the added complexity of 3D space. The hardware, while impressive for eye tracking, is limited by a narrow field of view, making it challenging to work with multiple apps without physical adjustments. These limitations, combined with the constraints of an iOS-based system on app capabilities, suggest that Vision Pro may not yet be the future of productivity many hoped it to be.
To be fair, Apple is not completely neglecting the potential enterprise use cases. After all, it did announce that Vision Pro will be incorporated into the Apple Device management process, which would make Vision Pro headsets easier to manage for IT departments. Collaborations with platforms like Microsoft Exchange and Google Workspace, along with cloud infrastructure support, further underscore this potential. Furthermore, innovation-forward companies are eager to explore potential use cases unlocked by Vision Pro. For instance, San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare’s adoption of Vision Pro headsets for exploring healthcare applications, such as assisting anesthesiologists in monitoring patient vitals, exemplifies the device’s versatility across professional domains.
Despite these overtures to the enterprise market, Apple’s marketing has firmly anchored the Vision Pro in the realm of consumer products. Promotional materials predominantly feature the device in home settings — be it a living room couch or a home office — painting a picture of Vision Pro as a conduit for personal use. This narrative is reinforced by partnerships and content offerings designed to captivate the individual user. Launching with 3D movies from Disney and showcasing applications like viewing F1 races with a 3D live model of the racetrack, Vision Pro is poised as a premium device for immersive entertainment.
So, while Vision Pro could improve with future iterations and become a competent productivity device for personal use, at-home entertainment has emerged as the primary use case for now.
For entertainment brands, the implications are clear. Vision Pro could be the best private home theater that consumers can bring wherever they go. In fact, one Vision Pro ad circulating on Snapchat showcases someone using the headset as a private screen during a flight:
Therefore, it is up to entertainment brands to heed the call to explore the possibilities in immersive storytelling and interactive experiences. In August, Apple formed the Alliance for OpenUSD along with Adobe, Pixar, Nvidia, and Autodesk in order to promote open standards for interoperable 3D tools and data. The nascent ecosystem of Vision Pro content demands both technical expertise and creative vision. Brands should leverage the open-source framework offered by the Alliance for OpenUSD to ensure their content seamlessly integrates with the broader vision of the platform.
For what it’s worth, Disney’s 1.5 billion investment in Fortnite maker Epic Games spells a potential path for the house of mouse to broker a truce between Epic and Apple, and hopefully bring Disney-branded Fortnite experiences into the immersive realm enabled by Vision Pro.
For non-entertainment brands, Vision Pro’s current focus on entertainment should not deter experimentation in delivering new immersive customer experiences. For example, home renovation retailer Lowe’s Innovation Lab created a Style Studio app for Vision Pro, which enables customers to step into an immersive 3D kitchen scene and explore and customize home designs in a way that transcends conventional online shopping or in-store visits, showcasing the potential of Vision Pro to enhance consumer experiences in innovative ways.
The User Experience: Isolated or Shared?
Another big question mark on Vision Pro hinges on the user experience it offers. As a fully-enclosed headset that uses real-time video passthrough to mimic an augmented reality experience, Vision Pro stands apart from the other VR headsets available in the market because Apple intends it to be more than an isolating, solo user experience. Passthrough allows users to see and interact with their surroundings, and the EyeSight feature is supposed to allow other people to see the users’ eyes.
Yet, most reviews of Vision Pro are quick to point out the limitations of both video passthrough and EyeSight. For example, Nilay Patel from The Verge described the Apple Vision Pro as “magic, until it’s not.” He highlighted its impressive features but also noted some concerns, such as imperfect video passthrough, the uncanny nature of the 3D avatars used for video calls, and the issue of social isolation due to the immersive nature of the headset, which prevents sharing experiences with those in the same room.
As a device, Vision Pro is simply not built to be shared among multiple users. Unlike, say, a household PC or a gaming console, Vision Pro is the ultimate personal computing device. While it does come with a Guest Mode, reviewers have noted how restrictive and user-hostile it is, offering essentially a demo locked away from the full potential of the device.
Additionally, significant customization is needed to ensure the light seal properly fits each user’s face, indicating the device’s primary design is for individual rather than multi-user experiences. These aspects underscore its unique positioning in the market, focusing on deeply personalized, immersive experiences at the expense of shared use cases.
That said, video passthrough on Vision Pro is good enough that users can easily navigate, say, a busy New York City street without any issue:
This means that, although Vision Pro doesn’t necessarily encourage social interactions between the user and people around them, it is still notably not cutting the user off from the surrounding. In other words, VIsion Pro is somewhere in between a destination device (like a conventional VR headset) and an accompaniment device (like a smartphone). It blends digital and physical worlds in a way that maintains connectivity to one’s environment, enriching real-world experiences with digital overlays and interactions. This approach positions the Vision Pro as a unique tool for personal computing, where the boundary between the user’s digital and physical worlds is seamlessly integrated, rather than creating a divide.
For brands and advertisers, this means Vision Pro offers an intriguing new platform for immersive and personalized marketing experiences. The device’s capabilities for augmented reality and the blending of digital content with the physical world present unique opportunities for engaging with consumers in a more direct and interactive manner. Brands could leverage this technology to create experiences that are not only captivating but also tailored to individual preferences and behaviors.
The Ecosystem Impact: An iPhone Moment for Mixed Reality?
The long-term success of Vision Pro rests on the content and apps that Apple will need to incentivize content creators and developers to build. Like any Apple device, Vision Pro benefits from its integration into Apple’s robust ecosystem, allowing users to effortlessly synchronize their existing Apple ID, personal media, and compatible applications with the device, ensuring a seamless transition into mixed reality environments. However, for Vision Pro to truly become a groundbreaking device in the realm of mixed reality headsets, akin to the transformative impact of the iPhone on mobile computing, it must cultivate a wide range of content and experiences, which will go a long way toward justifying the device’s premium price point.
Currently, Apple has successfully rallied quite a lot of industry partners such as Disney and Adobe to create content and experiences for Vision Pro, but there are some noticeable holdouts. Netflix, for one, has opted out of making its iPad app available on Vision Pro. Meanwhile, YouTube says a Vision Pro app is “on the roadmap” without quite committing to a date. While it is understandable that both Netflix and YouTube are taking a “wait and see” approach regarding Vision Pro, not having native apps for two of the biggest digital video services, even though both are still accessible through web browsers, undermines the value proposition of Vision Pro as the ultimate personal entertainment device.
Of course, Apple’s inability to get every major digital content service on board for Vision Pro at launch is also reflective of its broader battle in fighting off the pressure to open up its ecosystem, especially the App Store, to third-party stores and payment methods. Apple recently made some policy changes in Europe in response to the EU’s new anti-monopoly Digital Markets Act (DMA), but they were criticized by competitors as inadequate and even “malicious compliance.” While Vision Pro is obviously too new and too niche of a product to run into any DMA issue right now, this whole situation serves as an interesting microcosm of Apple’s broader challenges. As Apple navigates these regulatory waters, it will be interesting to see how it balances the need for compliance with its desire to maintain the unique aspects of its ecosystem that have contributed to its success.
Beyond the battle to get competitor services onboard, the arrival of Vision Pro is also having an interesting impact on the current VR market leader — Meta. Vision Pro’s steep price has led some market analysts to speculate that Meta could leverage this opportunity to position its Quest VR headsets as a more affordable mixed reality alternative, potentially becoming “the Android of mixed reality.” Of course, the analogy is far from perfect, given that the Quest headsets primarily aim to offer a VR experience while Vision Pro is doing everything it can to mimic an AR experience. This distinction in priorities means that these two devices may end up with vastly different use cases.
For their part, Meta Quest slyly added support for Apple’s Spatial Video format ahead of Vision Pro launch. After all, rising tides lift all boats. Meta’s $50 billion metaverse initiative hasn’t gained widespread consumer traction, despite the company’s significant investment and rebranding to emphasize a future in immersive virtual worlds. With Reality Labs generating less than 1% of Meta’s overall revenue and projected losses of $115 billion by 2030, the launch of Apple’s Vision Pro might just be the potential market validation that Meta needs to draw more consumers to the space. Meta views the Vision Pro’s high price as leaving a significant market segment open for its Quest devices, aiming to position the Quest as a primary alternative to Apple in the mixed reality space.
