Reflecting on Vision Pro in 2024: Failure or Future?

I think we all know the answer

Image courtesy of author

I’m writing this on Vision Pro with my MacBook Air’s display thrust into the beautiful surroundings of Bora Bora.

It’s been a while since I’ve done this. Regrettably, for the last few months, my Vision Pro headset has been sitting unloved and unused in the camera cabinet at the Mark Ellis Reviews studio. I unearthed it briefly to try out visionOS 2, but then remembered how awfully uncomfortable it is to use and promptly forgot about it again.

The tech industry at large appears to have done the same. So few people are talking about Vision Pro. Content that’s made about Apple’s headset draws only the smallest of passionate audiences (or those hurling ridicule). It is, seemingly, a product that is dying. Fast.

Or is it? Can we call Vision Pro one of the biggest failures or non-events of 2024? The fact that my YouTube videos on the ‘new’ version of AirPods Max drew in seven times the audience compared to the videos I’ve made about Vision Pro suggests we can.

There is more to the story, though — starting with visionOS 2.

Hello, visionOS 2

If you’re a Vision Pro user who, for some reason, hasn’t yet updated your headset to visionOS 2, I’m happy to…