Apple Vision Pro launched at WWDC over a week ago and they showed a lot of clips of normal people wearing it doing (relatively) normal things, like cooking, watching movies, even working at the office.
One clip that really intrigued me was the one where a father was recording his kids in 3D through his Vision Pro. To me, this seemed off at first since to other people, it may not look like you’re present in the moment. But after thinking about it for a while, isn’t it the same as just wearing sunglasses, if not better? Sunglasses block your eyes, but Vision Pro would show your eyes to the outside world.
So I guess the question is, will Apple Vision Pro and subsequent products become widely socially acceptable one day?
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I can’t imagine it’ll be all that widespread at $3500 dollars.
Rumours are that Apple will sell an “SE” version that will be much cheaper.
AR/VR intended for use in public spaces will never take off for as long as the user has to strap an expensive and bulky headset to their face. Things will get interesting once we work out how to get that into the form factor of a pair of regular glasses and bring the price down to under half what Apple is asking now.
Not sure. Their only shown use case in a public space was filming a video with their spatial audio and depth aware camera. Wearing a headset for that is IMO not weirder than holding a camcorder, which also was a thing for some time.
I suppose time will tell, it was weird to take photos on a smartphone once upon a time. It’s just been a big stumbling block that no one has really been able to surmount so far and I don’t think Apple is going to do it with their ski goggles. I suppose what Apple has going for them this time around that Google Glass (for example, I know it’s not really the same thing) didn’t is that we’re all a lot more used to cameras being pointed everywhere than we were in 2012.
it was weird to take photos on a smartphone once upon a time.
Really?! I don’t recall that. If you wanted good photos, you had a (D)SLR and a couple of lenses. It was perfectly socially acceptable to do that; it just took considerable dedication thanks to the bulkiness of the equipment.
If you wanted basic photos and mobility was more important, you used a point-and-shoot. Everybody owned at least one, and many people carried them around with them at (most) times. And if you were an early-adopter but didn’t mind the lower quality, you used your phone to take photos.
Nobody really cared much when you did that, as the form factor of the phone looked very similar to a point-and-shoot. If anything, they rolled their eyes thinking that you couldn’t afford a second device and settled for the cheap-looking blurry pictures. Early cameras in phones were honestly pretty pathetic.
I am really, really looking forward to AR in general, and I like to think of myself as a proponent and early adopter of new tech.
That being said, I don’t think we’ll see this gen of Vision take off. In fact, I’m kind of surprised at Apple for even releasing anything. They usually swoop in on newly established tech, do it better, then claim they invented it. Maybe that’s what they’re doing here, but it still feels too early. Until the gear is the size of large-frame sunglasses, I don’t think it’ll be adopted by the masses. Maybe their relegation of this product to the livingroom and workspace will help to prove me wrong.
VR hasn’t caught on as much as I thought it would. Using VR/Augmented reality is a hard thing to do for a long period of time. I get really motion sick from my PSVR after about 20 minutes. I know the tech has come a long way since then, but there’s some pretty significant hurdles to overcome between here and mass adoption. That’s even ignoring the buy in factor, which is a non-starter north of say $1k (maybe $1,500 if it’s more like an actual standalone computer).
There’s also the space requirement which isn’t really talked about enough. To enjoy the experience without being worried about bumping into stuff and destroying your house you do really need a decent amount of space that many people just don’t have.
When PSVR came out, we had a teeny tiny condo at the time, and I think it took me an hour before I had put my fist through the light in our living room.
That’s what I thought was so cool about Apple Vision. No controllers, UI is navigated by eye tracking…
And more focus on non-gaming tasks that should be much more small space freindly.
v1 of Vision Pro? Probably not.
Once the tech has matured and the price point comes down? Probably.
This is a relatively new product category so it’s tough to predict, but if you’re going solely off of Apple’s track record the last 20 years, the first couple of iterations will be enthusiast/luxury products that will drive interest and create demand, and then will become more commonplace. iPod, iPhone, Apple Watch all followed this lifecycle for the most part.
I think if anybody can get VR to be adopted by the masses it would be Apple. However, at this price I just don’t think it’s possible for the majority of people, even Apple Fanboys, to be able to afford.
If they had released this for $1500 I think that price point would be a lot more enticing for people, especially those who haven’t tried VR before.
Didn’t we already go through all.of this when Google glasses came out? People were getting their asses kicked for wearing them in public because people didn’t know if they were being recorded or not. It just seems like another instance of Apple taking something that has existed for years and pretend they invented it.
Yes but give it a few years for the price to come down, and for kinks in the technology to be worked out. The price would need to come down significantly though. They can’t compete with Meta at the price point they are at.
isn’t it the same as just wearing sunglasses, if not better?
Oh man, you just made a bunch of Apple execs have to change their pants.
No, it’s not. It’s absolutely, 100%, not the same or better. It’s like going to a concert and watching it through your phone as you record it. But worse.
I agree, Doug.
I think part of the confusion is that it looks like they’re translucent lenses, when in reality there’s no light pass-through.
What you see while wearing them is video display from the cameras on the front of the goggles. Meanwhile, the cameras inside the goggles capture your eyes and display an image of them on an external screen.
I think the promotional video is shot in a way that makes this seem a lot less disorienting and creepy than it will be in real life.
At some point, yes. The gen 1 is clunky but over time, with Apples r&d, the design will be refined and the price will come down. Imo apple wouldn’t release cutting edge tech like this without believing fully in it.
Like other headsets its too bulky. Sunglasses are easy on/off but this and other AR headsets (hololens) are completely incompatible with most people’s life. At work its going to mess up hair and makeup, and no one wants tight fitting goggle marks on their face. The Google Glass form factor was ideal but obviously the tech isn’t there and the tradeoffs were too high. Maybe AR will be socially acceptable some day but vision pro is too early imo.
mass adoption? i doubt it. but it definitely feels like it’s already being taken more seriously than, say, Google Glass was back when. also, if any company was going to break through the stigma (for lack a better word) associated with devices like this, Apple would be one of the first on my list.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting one, but then again I’m an iOS developer and will likely be playing around with developing apps for it.
I can definitely see myself using this in the (home) office and around the house. Purely for productivity this looks like it’ll be amazing
Absolutely not. Aside from the fact that it’s a whopping $3500, it’s a first gen product with a 2 hour battery (advertised, probably less in reality) and most of what was shown were gimmicks. Nobody’s going to put on a bulky headset to record videos and browse the internet. If the Meta Quest couldn’t break into the mainstream at less than fifth of the price, this won’t.
The only reason for the insane hype is “it’s Apple” but I think everyone knows AR headsets aren’t ready for the public yet.
It reminds me of when people went insane over the Hololens. Granted, this is way more polished, but I see it going in a similar path.
It’s a Apple product so regardless of the price or product it’ll probably be normalized.
