Does the Apple Vision Pro change the meta-, ahem, “spatial computing” conversation?
12 months on from the launch of our white paper Unreal estate: metaverse, extended reality and the future of our physical world, Apple has introduced its long-awaited foray into the world of extended reality: the Apple Vision Pro. It certainly didn’t go unnoticed that the phrase “spatial computing” dominated their messaging, with “metaverse” going unmentioned. At approximately 11:20am US Pacific time on 5 June, global online search activity for “spatial computing” consequently skyrocketed, but it was still dwarfed by “metaverse” (see below). What does this product announcement mean for the built world, and does it change the conversation about the metaverse’s declining hype since last year?
The cliff notes
At a striking but totally predictable market premium of $3,499, the Apple Vision Pro is far costlier than its Oculus (Meta) and Sony counterparts. Notably, the recent product demo indicates that the Vision Pro will offer users mixed reality — a blend of both augmented reality (overlaying digital information on real-world elements) and virtual reality (fully immersive… computer-generated world of imagery and sounds…) which can be toggled by the device’s Digital Crown. Of course, it also offers users the world-famous Apple UX/UI made famous by the personification of Steve Jobs through past and present devices — including a subtle nod to the interpersonal use cases of extended reality — in stark contrast to Meta’s 2021 rebrand featuring cartoonish avatars collaborating in otherworldly spaces.
It’s fantastic to see XR being used in the mainstream more and more and is further proof that XR is not only here to stay, but it is thriving! Apple doesn’t dip their toe in everything. In fact, they’re rather conservative on new bits of hardware, so to see them move so far away from their traditional hardware, shows how confident they are in the future of this space.
- Dami Hastrup, CEO and co-founder, MOONHUB
How could the Apple Vision Pro impact our use of space?
Antony Slumbers, an outspoken critic of metaverse hype over recent years, was happy to see an absence of the word in Apple’s announcement — adding that “focussing on better experiencing reality is a massive plus”. This speaks to a distinction made in the Pi Labs Unreal estate paper — whereby extended reality could augment existing spaces and/or substitute others. Consider a brick-and-mortar retail store, for example. Augmented and mixed reality could enhance the in-person buying experience, whereas virtual reality could, in some cases, enable shoppers to sample products from the comfort of their own homes (fuelling ecommerce). The same applies to office space. Wider adoption of mixed reality could resolve the Zooming-in-the-office issue to make our physical workspaces better adapted to hybrid work or distributed teams, but also creates more opportunity for remote work.
How it could impact entrepreneurs and creatives
According to Andrei Constantin and Bogdan Nicoara, co-founders of Bright Spaces, creators and entrepreneurs face an interesting paradox. On one hand, Apple’s foray into extended reality could add more certainty to spatial computing by establishing a market leader for product developers to align with. On the other hand, the monopolistic behaviour of Apple (enabled by the App Store and accusations of extortionate developer fees) could sound alarm bells for developers of extended reality use cases who had focused on the decentralisation elements of the metaverse conversation from 2021 and 2022. Another paradox exists, wherein there’s likely to be some added competition among would-be app developers for this new technology — given that iPhone and iPad apps won’t make full use of the extended reality user interface; but there’s also likely to be a growing level of demand for extended reality applications if Apple succeeds in activating its consumer base.
Challenges yet to be overcome
One challenge yet to be addressed by Apple is XR’s notorious issues with VR sickness. It is noteworthy that the device can shift from VR to AR/MR with the toggling of the Digital Crown, and that a lot of resources have been devoted to its 4K display, but will this be enough to facilitate mass adoption over extended periods of time? In other words, can I sit in extended reality for an 8–12 hour workday? In addition, it appears unlikely that the Apple Vision Pro will replace other devices such as smart phones or laptops, meaning that the $3,499 price tag is in addition to a smartphone and similarly priced high-performing laptop. Although there’s undoubtedly much more to come, the sneak preview we’ve had of the Apple Vision Pro’s capabilities are notably tethered to path dependency. The web browsing features, for example, aren’t dissimilar to how workers with multiple screens currently set up their workstations. Same goes for multimedia viewing.
For the immersive experiences facilitated by the Apple Vision Pro to be shared with significant others inside the home, an investment of $7,000 to $10,500 would be required. That’s going to be entirely out of reach for most, meaning Apple is very much directing their early focus to the top end of the consumer market (and potentially the enterprise market). For the time being, it appears that extended reality will remain a rather personal (and perhaps lonely) affair, but that doesn’t detract from the growing range of use cases it offers to the built world.
Special thank you to contributors to this piece, including the Pi Labs team, Antony Slumbers, Dami Hastrup, Andrei Constantin and Bogdan Nicoara. To read in more detail about how extended reality and “spatial computing” affects the built world, download Unreal estate: Metaverse, extended reality and the future of our physical world.
