I think the Apple Vision Pro is great for what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is not something that a lot of consumers are ready for or need at this point in time.
The Mac, iPhone, and iPad do not make fundamentally change your relationship and connectedness with the world in which you live. Transitioning your focus and awareness to and from your Mac, iPhone, or iPad to your surroundings and people around you is nearly instantaneous. The Apple Vision Pro alters that relationship quite a lot, both physically and sensory and alters how you are perceived by others around you.
I do however see some interesting opportunities for the Apple Vision Pro to be effective in a workplace environment. If you look at how office layouts have changed in response to “agile” development processes we went from having a bunch of little cubicles, I.e., prairie dog villages, to open office plans and even to not having assigned desk.
The intention of open office plans, I.e., bullpens, to promote greater interaction and collaboration. But it created its own set of problems like difficulty quietly focusing on one’s own work, visual distractions, people having personal and potentially disturbing phone calls within earshot of the entire team, and in some cases I experienced, having your product owner or manager constantly surveying the team throughout the day. Is it done yet?
If nothing else the Apple Vision Pro would allow people who are forced to work in such environments to regain some sense of isolation and uninterrupted focus needed to do certain parts of their jobs easier.
Solid and honest review. I was on the fence to buy it last year but I'm glad I decided to wait. I will almost certainly buy the second iteration especially if it includes the M4 which will help future proof it a bit more.
I truly believe they paused the addition of Apple Intelligence to the VP to actually get the iPad and Mac versions ready. After all, some features were added later for Mac, such as Genmoji on 15.3. Not sure if maybe they might just wait for M5, which in theory will be nearing double the performance and would be close to PS5 level of performance, so gaming on VP shouldn’t be too much harder to port since games will run nearly on par as the PSVR2.
Apple Vision Pro is the same as iPad Pro have the same problem: the hardware is perfect but the software is and remains the limiting factor. Apple seems to rigid and seems not be able to really act decisively. Take eg the filesystem and multitasking on the iPad Pro. It’s still a mess and Apple doesn’t get it.
Production of some components ended May last year due to sales being far below expectations.
Source please and what is the data based on? Spoiler alert: reliable sales data doesn't exist. That production of "some" components ended in May is meaningless because it was known months before VP launched that production of the 4K microdisplays would be very constrained--so once production of easier-to-manfacture components hit what were known to be the production limits of the microdisplays, it wouldn't have made sense to just keep making more. In addition: here's an excellent dissection of the report about weak sales back last spring... and what makes it excellent is that it tracks how the source of that report, the well-known Ming-Chi Kuo, was constantly contradicting HIMSELF in his comments about Vision Pro. https://www.uploadvr.com/apple-vision-pro-production-cut-claims-debunked/
It took 14 years and a near-death experience for Apple as a company before its cornerstone product, the Mac, became a true mainstream success with the iMac. Just something to keep in mind as the technosphere echo chamber writes of Vision Pro in 12 months.
I don't feel that way. I doubt Apple thinks it is a flop. If Apple sold the entire inventory during pre orders (supply chain info shows they did) and that was north of 180,000 units and we're not counting upgrades or accessories, then that equates to about 10% of Meta's total profit from Meta Quest 2 in opening weekend. Apple sold an estimated 400,000 units in 2024. That's about $1.4 billion in the first year compared to $7.2 billion in the entire lifetime of Meta Quest 2.
Tough to call that a flop.
Meta just said it has lost $60 billion since 2020 on its headset division.
I think Apple and Apple Vision Pro are doing fine by all metrics. It may not be a blockbuster, but comparing everything to iPhone is a waste of time.
How is Vision improving anyone’s life? How does it align with Apple’s stated desire to enable creativity and support “the crazy ones”? What is it beyond a very expensive toy that’s bound to fill up garbage dumps sooner or later? I mean, seriously. We can all see what’s going on in the world right now. This kind of nonsense isn’t advancing anything useful for society at large.
Tech bros looking to scoop up more money. Vision is a flat out flop. Kill it.
I don't feel that way. I doubt Apple thinks it is a flop. If Apple sold the entire inventory during pre orders (supply chain info shows they did) and that was north of 180,000 units and we're not counting upgrades or accessories, then that equates to about 10% of Meta's total profit from Meta Quest 2 in opening weekend. Apple sold an estimated 400,000 units in 2024. That's about $1.4 billion in the first year compared to $7.2 billion in the entire lifetime of Meta Quest 2.
Tough to call that a flop.
Meta just said it has lost $60 billion since 2020 on its headset division.
I think Apple and Apple Vision Pro are doing fine by all metrics. It may not be a blockbuster, but comparing everything to iPhone is a waste of time.
How is Vision improving anyone’s life? How does it align with Apple’s stated desire to enable creativity and support “the crazy ones”? What is it beyond a very expensive toy that’s bound to fill up garbage dumps sooner or later? I mean, seriously. We can all see what’s going on in the world right now. This kind of nonsense isn’t advancing anything useful for society at large.
Tech bros looking to scoop up more money. Vision is a flat out flop. Kill it.
In the upcoming AppleInsider Podcast, I talk to someone that uses it while holding his child. It's one of the only platforms that lets you use it easily with one hand.
Improving life? The device in its own is a whimsical triumph. I smile when I put it on, it brought tears to my sister in law that got to relive her wedding via spatial video, I can play chess with a friend halfway across the country and feel like they are in the room with me.
The crazy ones? The ones that break away from the status quo of computing to seek something exciting and new? Sounds like Apple Vision Pro fits perfectly into Apple's old marketing campaign.
Apple Vision Pro is letting people navigate their electric wheelchair using head gestures and voice. It's allowing users trapped in a tiny cubical to work from a beach. It's telling stories in ways we've never been able to experience without being there in person, and I don't know about you, but I can't go feed baby elephants in Africa right now.
I don't feel that way. I doubt Apple thinks it is a flop. If Apple sold the entire inventory during pre orders (supply chain info shows they did) and that was north of 180,000 units and we're not counting upgrades or accessories, then that equates to about 10% of Meta's total profit from Meta Quest 2 in opening weekend. Apple sold an estimated 400,000 units in 2024. That's about $1.4 billion in the first year compared to $7.2 billion in the entire lifetime of Meta Quest 2.
Tough to call that a flop.
Meta just said it has lost $60 billion since 2020 on its headset division.
I think Apple and Apple Vision Pro are doing fine by all metrics. It may not be a blockbuster, but comparing everything to iPhone is a waste of time.
How is Vision improving anyone’s life? How does it align with Apple’s stated desire to enable creativity and support “the crazy ones”? What is it beyond a very expensive toy that’s bound to fill up garbage dumps sooner or later? I mean, seriously. We can all see what’s going on in the world right now. This kind of nonsense isn’t advancing anything useful for society at large.
Tech bros looking to scoop up more money. Vision is a flat out flop. Kill it.
In the upcoming AppleInsider Podcast, I talk to someone that uses it while holding his child. It's one of the only platforms that lets you use it easily with one hand.
Improving life? The device in its own is a whimsical triumph. I smile when I put it on, it brought tears to my sister in law that got to relive her wedding via spatial video, I can play chess with a friend halfway across the country and feel like they are in the room with me.
The crazy ones? The ones that break away from the status quo of computing to seek something exciting and new? Sounds like Apple Vision Pro fits perfectly into Apple's old marketing campaign.
Apple Vision Pro is letting people navigate their electric wheelchair using head gestures and voice. It's allowing users trapped in a tiny cubical to work from a beach. It's telling stories in ways we've never been able to experience without being there in person, and I don't know about you, but I can't go feed baby elephants in Africa right now.
So no, I utterly disagree with your assessment.
It's amazing to use and certainly feels like the future. It also needs a v3.0 sooner than later for things like 'window spaces', better window management in general (tighter UIs - e.g. infinite canvas is not infinite when the calculator along takes as much of your FOV as a 32" monitor, window snapping, remembering where you laid out windows on future launches), controller support as you mentioned, etc.
Aside from 2.3 feeling like maybe 1.0 (maybe still slightly less given lack of native apps), there's the difficulty of conveying how stunning it is despite rough edges - spatial media is truly magical, spatial SharePlay feels like a sci-fi movie come to life, a spatial workspace is closer to how we actually work - and seeing faked infomercial-feeling videos of someone using those just don't convey the actual experience at all.
And it's 1.0 hardware - so was the first iPhone, but that had a lower price and lower friction to use & demo, it may take AR glasses to hit the broader use case.
But every time I put it on, I'm blown away. It's not general consumer ready, despite everything packed in it's still first-gen hardware and software, but.... just damn, still incredible, and hopefully part of Apple's path.
In the upcoming AppleInsider Podcast, I talk to someone that uses it while holding his child. It's one of the only platforms that lets you use it easily with one hand.
Improving life? The device in its own is a whimsical triumph. I smile when I put it on, it brought tears to my sister in law that got to relive her wedding via spatial video, I can play chess with a friend halfway across the country and feel like they are in the room with me.
The crazy ones? The ones that break away from the status quo of computing to seek something exciting and new? Sounds like Apple Vision Pro fits perfectly into Apple's old marketing campaign.
Apple Vision Pro is letting people navigate their electric wheelchair using head gestures and voice. It's allowing users trapped in a tiny cubical to work from a beach. It's telling stories in ways we've never been able to experience without being there in person, and I don't know about you, but I can't go feed baby elephants in Africa right now.
So no, I utterly disagree with your assessment.
Yep. It’s a magical device that is integral to my daily workflow. I do house errands with it, travel with it, do my day to day work with the Mac Virtual Display and Moonlight on Windows.
It is “insanely great”, as Steve once would say, but our expectations of new products and how they fit into an ecosystem or spoon feed us content or use cases are far higher than they were in the 80’s. We don’t have that same itch to tinker and explore. I don’t even think the price is all that high if you consider how much an Apple II or Macintosh cost back in their day after inflation. We collectively have a lot of “good enough” tech and other distractions that make it harder to digest a new device that asks us to alter our workflows.
The AVP breaks away from the status quo and is already having a major impact on the HMD space with Meta Horizon OS adopting its UX metaphors, Android XR and Samsung’s device looking a LOT like an AVP competitor, etc. We see the recent articles about medical professionals gathering for a 300 person symposium on the AVP in healthcare. Heck there’s a great recent thread on Reddit about a tradesman streamlining his installs of Ethernet drops with a LIDAR room scanning app and 3D object placement in the AVP. The sky is the limit on potential, but we’ve been conditioned to be fed, rather than to explore. That makes for a great opportunity for developers looking for innovation.
It would be interesting to read a review by someone using Vision Pro in an industrial situation such as engineering, medicine, manufacturing, training, and so forth. too many of these disappointed reviewers are just using this system for games, personal use, home entertainment. These are basic uses and not far removed from a laptop.
Had to revisit this. I don't think it is time to exit the preview. AVP is either the Lisa/Newton of a new paradigm or the Segway or... but this is far too early. The Segway worked for a few verticals but never grew beyond that and failed. Lisa and Newton developed into Mac/Win and Newton to iPhone/iPad. It took a lot of work (from Lisa it was mainly about removing features and adding a few good ones). Apple should move much faster on the OS and deliver more hardware revisions to get somewhere with this.
Comments
It took 14 years and a near-death experience for Apple as a company before its cornerstone product, the Mac, became a true mainstream success with the iMac. Just something to keep in mind as the technosphere echo chamber writes of Vision Pro in 12 months.
The crazy ones? The ones that break away from the status quo of computing to seek something exciting and new? Sounds like Apple Vision Pro fits perfectly into Apple's old marketing campaign.
Apple Vision Pro is letting people navigate their electric wheelchair using head gestures and voice. It's allowing users trapped in a tiny cubical to work from a beach. It's telling stories in ways we've never been able to experience without being there in person, and I don't know about you, but I can't go feed baby elephants in Africa right now.
Aside from 2.3 feeling like maybe 1.0 (maybe still slightly less given lack of native apps), there's the difficulty of conveying how stunning it is despite rough edges - spatial media is truly magical, spatial SharePlay feels like a sci-fi movie come to life, a spatial workspace is closer to how we actually work - and seeing faked infomercial-feeling videos of someone using those just don't convey the actual experience at all.
And it's 1.0 hardware - so was the first iPhone, but that had a lower price and lower friction to use & demo, it may take AR glasses to hit the broader use case.
But every time I put it on, I'm blown away. It's not general consumer ready, despite everything packed in it's still first-gen hardware and software, but.... just damn, still incredible, and hopefully part of Apple's path.
It is “insanely great”, as Steve once would say, but our expectations of new products and how they fit into an ecosystem or spoon feed us content or use cases are far higher than they were in the 80’s. We don’t have that same itch to tinker and explore. I don’t even think the price is all that high if you consider how much an Apple II or Macintosh cost back in their day after inflation. We collectively have a lot of “good enough” tech and other distractions that make it harder to digest a new device that asks us to alter our workflows.