Five big issues with Apple’s new mixed reality headset
Apple has announced the Vision Pro, a ‘Spatial Computing’ (read: mixed reality) headset. In other words, they have made a pricier, cuter, more Apple-y, less glasses and more Scooba mask Magic Leap. Now the hot takes are flaming out as less than 0.000000000000000000001% of the species have actually tried a guided tour of the product, what are the big issues?
- The price. $3499 is roughly 7x the amount of the Oculus. Yes, the device does a lot, and looks great, but it doesn’t cure cancer and people are struggling to pay rent. This puppy is not going mass market fast until the price comes down or Apple announces a veeeeeery cute payment plan. Either way, Klarna and co are likely rubbing their hands with glee.
- The fake eyes. ‘EyeSight’ (and exterior screen) is a nice touch, but let’s be honest, most humans will take off the headset rather than have a conversation with it on. Apart from being polite, it’s just weird not to. Those that won’t will have fewer friends. I like the idea and the direction, but the execution isn’t there yet. Apple appears to have missed a fundamental human behaviour here (or is trying to change one), but I don’t know many people who want to have more chats with people and not look into their eyes when in the same room. It’ll always be rude, weird and creepy. Beyond this, it’ll be too easy to get distracted. Instead, I would have laboured that the device is easy to pause, durable and comfortable to take them on and off to have real-world conversations.
3. Portability. Apple claims this is going with you to places. You will be ridiculed if you whip this out anywhere but the office or home. Apple didn’t waste a second during the announcement showing anyone using this outside. Anyone saying they are going to use this in coffee bars is a liar, ok with being pointed at, a nerd or has brilliant insurance. At least for the foreseeable future, hey ten years down the line, we might all be not talking to each other and avatars roam the metaverse, but I’d wager there will be a time and a place to put a shoe-sized device on your face although Costa is not it.
4. Input methods. I am excited to try the input methods as they seem to be ultra-refined (stationary hand pinches and finger scrolling), but I have reservations based on my experience (and I know that’s not everyone’s, but I have spoken to others who have the same gripes) in VR and other Apple products. Siri is not heralded as the bastion of voice assistants. I have tried multiple times to do simple tasks and it fails because of atmospheric issues, cognitive misunderstanding etc. The lack of a keyboard-first approach is both bold and concerning, but I want to see how well it works before I totally pass judgement. One thing I am certain about is that we won’t be searching voice first for a while because the technology still can’t understand when I want it to select a Spotify playlist called ‘Cherry’ versus the artist Neneh Cherry.
5. Battery life. Two hours is a choice. Sure, it’s a cute and light battery pack but that puppy means you’re not using Vision Pro all day, which I am fine with, but the reality is people will require long wires if they are going to use this realistically until we can all work the two-hour stints that Apple clearly wants us to. Apple is smart to go after the work-from-home crowd but, the battery seems to support more sitting down and being tethered to power which is an area it would have been nice to see more innovation in from the off.
All this said, there’s a lot to like and get excited about. The future of work just got a lot sexier, the future of entertainment feels more realistic, and identity online (and possibly offline) just got more interesting, and more intriguing is what Apple left out. While a lot of people want glasses that look indistinguishable from what we have today, I believe a light and thin enough version of the Vision Pro that goes completely see-through at a moments notice, could be the winning design for the masses — certainly inside and perhaps a more limited version will be what happens outside. Why? Think about light and when people want to be immersed —i.e. when they are relaxing (wellness, films etc). Glasses will never offer that, unless they look like ski glasses that have panels on the sides and even then, right now at least, people look strange and make people stare. But such a device could easily augment the world around us and that’s valuable to individuals, and brands, and could easily change how we experience the world (and hopefully people) we interact with.
In reality (pun intended), this version of APV is not the one that will go mass market. The people that buy this are rich (or debt-comfortable!) guinea pigs that will refine the next versions for the rest of us. The Apple Vision Pro will ultimately need to be smaller, cheaper and more usable beyond the home for this to go mass market.
What do you think? Here’s the whole promo video if you haven’t checked it out yet.
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