Apple’s “Vision Pro” has been on the market in the USA for a few weeks. There is huge interest in the company’s first VR headset. Review videos on YouTube receive millions of clicks within a few hours of being published, because people expect first-class products from the tech pioneers from Cupertino, California. And Apple delivers that too – but with some compromises. Can the attack on Meta, Sony, Valve and Co. succeed?
It’s an unusual situation that Apple is facing with the market entry of the “Vision Pro”: Tim Cook’s (63) company is normally the spearhead of technical innovation, but they apparently never really warmed to the concept of VR glasses . This can also be felt in the fact that the word “Virtual Reality” or its abbreviation VR practically does not appear in product presentations, Apple markets its glasses as an AR headset and prefers to call it “Spacial Computing” instead talking about VR.
From a purely technical perspective, this makes sense because Apple not only equips its glasses with cameras, but also with lidar scanners. The latter can physically detect objects in space and have been installed as standard in all iPhones for several generations. This makes it clear how much Apple is working towards “augmented reality” (AR), i.e. the integration of digital content in the real physical world. The group is also designing its marketing accordingly: in the first presentation videos for “Vision Pro,” the focus is clearly on people maintaining eye contact and being seen while wearing the glasses. The idea is to convey the image that users are not cut off from the outside world, but can interact with it.
In fact, the fact remains that cameras and sensors have to record the environment, process the signal and then display it on a display. This happens at an incredible speed of just twelve milliseconds and the built-in displays are of such high quality that our eyes can no longer see individual pixels – but technically this design means that they are VR glasses. That wouldn’t actually be a big deal, because Apple delivers a first-class device. But because VR applications are apparently being deliberately neglected and the wearer’s “see-through” eyes are anything but convincing, the “Vision Pro” will initially remain a distinct solo experience until the first major updates.
Even if someone else is also wearing Vision Pro, you can only share what you see under the glasses by recording a video of it. Apple advertises that you can adjust the degree between VR and AR using a wheel on the glasses, but if a user wants to sit at the Grand Canyon to watch a larger-than-life film, for example, he or she can only do that alone . It is currently not possible to synchronize two glasses with each other and experience the virtual environment together.
There is also the fact that Apple is apparently struggling with first-generation problems when designing the glasses. Although the company relies on high-quality and comfortable materials, it puts an important basic problem aside: the weight of the glasses (at least 650 grams) should not rest on the nose and cheekbones or feel like you have something on your face all the time. Meta, for example, solves this problem in the third “Quest” generation (515 grams) by shifting the weight to the forehead. However, this means a design compromise because it makes the glasses larger. The fact that Apple opted for the appearance viewed from the outside instead of the comfort felt from the inside is one of the most frequently cited criticisms of the “Vision Pro”.
On top of that, Apple is struggling with the availability of software when it launches its headset. There are currently no separate apps from Netflix, TikTok or YouTube for the glasses, because Apple is in a quarrel with several large developers due to licensing disputes. So far, the focus has been on the company’s own software and its integration into the Apple ecosystem, into which most of the “Vision Pro” customers are probably already integrated. In fact, the glasses can skilfully demonstrate their strengths there, for example when they take over the display of a MacBook ad hoc and display it razor-sharp in any size.
The consistent focus on augmented reality is also refreshingly different, as is the lack of physical controllers and the technically high-quality implementation of eye tracking. The glasses make excellent use of the built-in sensors; menus and individual windows remain anchored in the real physical environment with incredible precision where they are placed and scaled. Even if you leave a room and return, you will find the digital objects where you left them. However, it would be desirable to be able to create multiple location profiles, “at home” and “work,” for example. Currently, users have to reposition their windows and folders every time they change location. It can be assumed that Apple will provide such functions via an update.
With the “Vision Pro”, Apple is entering a market in which several manufacturers have been competing for around a decade. Most of them now offer extensive ecosystems for their platforms – and at significantly lower prices. Meta is in its third generation with the “Quest 3” and charges between 600 and 1,000 euros for its headset, which is superior in some respects and inferior in others. Sony’s second generation of VR glasses for the Playstation 5 is priced in a similar range. That’s a huge discrepancy from the $3,500 that the Vision Pro costs. Even the “Index” from gaming giant Valve, which is superior when it comes to gaming, only costs around a third of that.
It can be argued that the focus of “Vision Pro” with augmented reality is different. But when Apple launched the “Vision Pro” there was little specific software for this purpose. There is currently no “must-have” application in sight that virtually justifies the purchase of the glasses. The bottom line is that the “Vision Pro” is not a frontal attack on the competition, but rather a cautious approach. However, thanks to Apple’s media traction, it is still revitalizing the market, which should give the further development of smart glasses and their software a renewed boost.
