Don’t dismiss Apple’s expensive new headset too prematurely

Only wider use of the device will reveal whether Apple has another iPhone-like hit on its hands – or rather, in our faces. Will it be comfortable to use the device for long periods of time, or will it bother some users? Would we adjust to wearing what looked like high-tech ski goggles, or would it seem silly to put it on in public? Will consumers be willing to shell out $3,499 for the device when it goes on sale next year?

Wall Street apparently wasn’t impressed by the price or the deadline: A day after a stock market gain, Apple’s shares plummeted as the world watched the company spend years developing. But it’s too soon to write Apple’s entry into what the company calls “spatial computing.” Indeed, even if Apple’s initial device fails to gain traction, what we saw at Monday’s launch demonstrates its potential to become an essential new computing platform.

Apple has done what many technology observers thought impossible. This has made mixed-reality computing interesting and attractive. Unlike competing devices that make the wearer feel closed in, Apple is promising a device that minimizes the intrusion of technology as much as possible. The headset wearer’s eyes are visible to those around them, allowing eye contact to be simulated without removing the device. It’s a feature I hope over time becomes standard on every mixed-reality device and feels so obvious we’ll forget the invention was ever needed.

A dial on the unit allows the wearer to increase or decrease the level of immersion based on personal preference. Dial it down one way or another to block out the world around you, or open things up if you don’t want to feel closed off from your surroundings. This choice would likely make it more practical to wear for longer periods of time.

Navigation in the device is handled with your eyes and your hands, rather than, as Apple’s presentation noted, using the clunky controllers required for other devices, such as those for rival Meta Platforms Inc.’s Quest headset. . The new operating system, VisionOS, maintains the visual language of iPads and iPhones, and with it, information about how apps work.

All of this is made possible by Apple’s current dominance in hardware. For example, a video call can be made for users using iPhones or iPads, and health features can be paired with the Apple Watch. In the office, the link between the MacBook and the headset leaves the clunky virtual reality office software offered by Meta and others in the dust.

Ironically, Facebook parent Meta could benefit from the Vision Pro rollout. Its headset is available today, and costs only a fraction of the Apple device. The new Meta Quest 3, which was announced just last week to make headlines just days before Apple’s launch, costs $499 and already comes with a healthy list of apps and games.

But over time, Apple’s product ecosystem will surely win out, making the Vision Pro, and whatever iterations follow, a market leader—albeit in a product segment that has roughly 35 million users in the US. Still small. To greatly increase adoption, Apple needs to rally its vast legion of third-party developers on what is currently an extremely expensive tool. A deal with game development platform Unity is a start—and compatibility with existing iPad augmented reality apps means at least a few things will have to be done from day one. But it will be a challenge to persuade developers to pour resources into a device with a small number of users over the long term.

Until then, it’ll feel like the device does nothing more than recreate the existing things we do—stream movies, browse the web, or participate in video calls—only in a way that makes the eye feel bigger. . But this is the reality of the first edition. The first iPhone did not have an App Store. The Apple 1 computer, released in 1976, did nothing by today’s standards. As it happens, the first Apple computer cost $666, or about $3,500 in today’s dollars.

Both the iPhone and the Apple 1 spoke of a computing future that hadn’t even been fully imagined at the time. Over time, the Vision Pro’s price will drop; The battery pack would become redundant and other limits would be gone. The device will become thinner, lighter and cooler.

Apple certainly can’t claim to have invented mixed reality, but in its typical fashion it has brought innovation and smart design to a category that was sorely lacking in both. Just don’t call it the Metaverse, okay? ©Bloomberg

Updated: June 06, 2023, 11:22 PM IST