Vision Pro first look

Apple nails the hardware and the experience.

Author

Leander Kahney
June 06, 2023

Apple will sell millions of the Vision Pro headset but ultimately it’ll be a failure.

A day after Apple revealed its spatial computing headset, it’s clear from the first hands-on reviews that entertainment experiences are gonna sell this thing.

Even though it’s not a mass-market product, and is priced as such, there will be lots of early adopters who will pay the hefty $3,500 price tag to experience games, movies and immersive photos and videos in glorious surround-orama.

And what about porn? There’s the old, dubious chestnut that porn drives adoption of new technology. What will AR/VR porn be like in the Vision Pro? Maybe it’ll be great, but there’s no way porn will be the “killer app” when the old lingerie catalog will do.

I can also see businesses buying lots of Vision Pros for workers. There’s a clear use case for working in the Vision Pro environment. Plus, penny-pinching bosses will see the headset as a way of actually saving money. No need to buy computers and monitors when a single headset will do. As someone noted on Twitter, the Vision Pro is like a Pro Display XDR, but $1,500 cheaper.

But how incredibly depressing is it if you and your co-workers wear these things all day?

And what about kids? You think parents hate technology now. Wait until little Johnny is jacked in 23 hours a day playing 3D Fortnite.

I can see users putting on the Vision Pro for the incredible experience of watching a huge-screen movie or reliving 3D memories like a psycho Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

But wearing a headset all day like a robot seems very weird. And that, I think, will ultimately doom the Vision Pro. No matter how incredible the experiences are, people just will not wear an isolating headset all day, every day.

And if they do, how dystopian and depressing is that? Check out our poll results below to see what Cult of Mac Today readers think.

Whatever your feelings about Vision Pro, it’s clear the new 15-inch MacBook Air is gonna sell like nobody’s business.

If Apple has a hit product from WWDC23, it’s the new MacBook Air.

Also in today’s newsletter:

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

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One more thing ...

❝

The mark of an innovative company is not only that it comes up with new ideas first, but also that it knows how to leapfrog when it finds itself behind.

— Steve Jobs, 2011.

Today’s poll

What will be the Vision Pro's killer app?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Results from yesterday’s poll: What do you think of Apple's AR/VR headset?

Best reader comments from ‘ken.rosenberry,’ ‘richard.nieves,’ ‘davecowen,’ ‘ritab’ and ‘golding1’

Subscribe to The Weekender — Get the week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.

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