Oops Apple did it again, Vision Pro will change computing

The Apple Vision Pro will be a blockbuster over the next several years for Apple and lead to the development of novel consumer electronics both physical and digital. To do this Apple needs to introduce the product to an initial group who can afford it and successfully begin the process of incremental hardware improvement.

Some are panning the Vision Pro with it’s external battery pack and potentially clunky feel but I think this is a pivotal moment for Apple and AR. Apple did 3 things that make the product not only viable with is strongest base but actively attractive as a luxury purchase to most who could afford it. While people will balk at the $3,499 price tag, consumers have proven willing to pay that kind of money for entertainment – the Vision Pro has an amazing set of screens built in for this movies, games, TV and it works on day 1 according to Apple.

Why is Vision Pro going to be sticky?

Apple needs to start funding the refinement and development of the Vision Pro by getting it into customers hands, and judging by their past products I think they are following the same general sort of strategy. Gen 1 is going to be expensive and have issues but will be novel and “cool”.

If they can get good enough adoption and demonstrate to developers there’s a lot of money to be made they will start their Apple product flywheel. Imagine as the device gets smaller and the battery pack goes away that it could be used for almost anything – working in a factory to helping with public speaking by giving you all the right prompts in an invisible manner that lets you maintain eye contact.

Developers

I think Apple capture developers the moment they committed to making their app store the same on Vision Pro – developers can dive right into adding incremental features or games without changing up their entire process. My mind exploded with the number of publishers who would want to spend money on this, from Houzz/Pinterest to gaming the possibilities do seems quite endless.

Enthusiasts

One of the features demoed (not live) was that you can put on a Vision Pro and simply look at your apple laptop to have the screen pulled up. This is an enthusiast play – and Apple wants these people along and that’s why Gen 1 has Bluetooth in it. Might not be totally Steve Jobs but they are trying to get this thing out the door.

Luxury

The other big portion of the demo was showing you how you can watch TV on beautiful lens and have a completely engrossing entertainment experience. Besides this the device allows you to do things like take 3D video of your family and play it back. I will tell you most people who buy Apple products that I know and who could afford this – will be considering it at least by the second generation. 3D videos of your family are the kind of magic that make marketing campaigns / products sticky in consumers head.

Why is the Vision Pro going to change AR?

They have defined a better UX and way forward than any major company has. They did it by bringing along developers and relatively what apple normally does they left it pretty open by allowing Bluetooth. One thing that makes this product “feel” like the future is they did not leave old computing behind – the device supports web browsing in a better way just like it potential supports modern 3D gaming.

Gestures & voice

The lens has cameras that are downward facing which confused me at first but you realize this enables it to monitor your hands easily in any position. The main way you use the device is hand gestures, voice and eye tracking which is completely novel in this package. Think sci fi movies where the main character is throwing around screens in their vision – this is literally as close as we have seen it.

Look through is clearly (pun intended) the right UX

It helps solves nausea, and broaden its appeal to being less “dorky”. It doesn’t seem to completely take people out of the room and Apple wants this device to live in the living room. This positions it more firmly as a broad entertainment device for everyone, rather than specialized device for gamers.

Thousands of apps are ready to start to add features – think Angry Birds 3D

Lots of people besides Apple stand to make money in this ecosystem and this is one reason I think this technology will not be a dead end for Apple like it has been for Microsoft and Google. Apple has the best product, it’s functionality makes Halo Lens, Google Glass, and Oculus look like prototypes