Apple's headset is finally here, and it's called the Apple Vision Pro.

Since 2018, rumors about this mysterious headset device have never ceased. Every few months, news broke that Apple was seeking solutions in the upstream supply chain to carry out product validation, suggesting that the product was on the horizon, but each time it ended up 'skipping' until today.

This is the first time since the Apple Watch was released in 2014 that Apple has introduced a new computing platform. Everyone was expecting it. Users, developers, and even competitors in the industry were all the same. After all, in Apple's nearly half-century of entrepreneurial history, every time it has built a new hardware paradigm, it has opened up a huge incremental market.

But this time, things are getting a little delicate.

On the one hand, Apple Vision Pro has the industry's top hardware specifications and parameters, which will probably raise the headset experience to a whole new level; on the other hand, the pricing of $3499 (about RMB 25,000) also predestines it not to be like the iPhone, which will quickly spread the goods and become popular. As Apple's first product in the headset category, the Apple Vision Pro is much more symbolic than the actual revenue generated from sales. It anchors users' perceived expectations, raises a flag for developers, and is an industry-wide benchmark for experience. Regardless of the ultimate success or failure, Apple will bring an earthquake to the VR and AR industry.

From today onwards, the history of VR and AR has turned a new page.

01 $3499 "next-generation headset

Apple Vision Pro is equipped with a set of hardware configuration beyond the norm.

The first is the resolution, as previously announced, Apple Vision Pro is equipped with a monocular super 4K display module, plus a three-piece Pancake lens solution, and the total number of pixels in the entire display system is up to 23 million.

This display system has not yet reached the "monocular 8K" retina level, but it is also quite close, surpassing all the headset products currently on the market.

Apple has also spared no expense in sensor configuration. In addition to four built-in cameras for eye-tracking, Apple has also equipped the front panel of the headset with as many as 13 sensors, including high-definition cameras and laser sensors that capture and sense the user's surroundings, providing Apple Vision Pro with complete AR capabilities.

For many years, Apple has insisted on developing AR (augmented reality) technology, believing that computing devices cannot be completely divorced from reality. Including the previous "meta-universe" concept due to the Meta renaming and a big hit, Cook has also publicly expressed that he does not think VR is the direction of technological evolution.

But the technology associated with VR headsets is now mainstream in the industry. Even the Apple Vision Pro had to adopt the VR solution, and through the external camera, it was magically transformed into an AR platform.

The end result is that the Apple Vision Pro costs a lot, and the pricing is quite impressive. A media report previously compiled a supply chain quote for the Apple Vision Pro and found that the cost of the components alone was over $1,500, and the final price was $3,499.

It can be said that, despite the official release, within 1-2 years, Apple Vision Pro will still not immediately enter the lives of most ordinary people. Most consumers, especially domestic users, will not buy this generation of products.

Previously, it was revealed that Apple's sales target for the first year of Apple Vision Pro launch was set at 1 million units. This sales target is very conservative for Apple. For reference, when the first generation of Apple Watch was released, the number of reservations on the first day alone was more than 1 million.

Apple Vision Pro's high pricing means the product won't roll out quickly｜Apple

But given the size of the VR/AR market as a whole, that 1 million sales target is ambitious. After all, the total number of VR/AR headsets shipped worldwide in 2022 will be just 8.8 million, so if Apple manages to sell 1 million Apple Vision Pro units, it could take about 10 percent of the market. Considering that Apple will almost certainly launch lower-priced, next-generation products for a wider audience in the future, a first-year sales of 1 million would be a very good start.

What is certain is that the Apple Vision Pro will have a longer development blueprint than any previous Apple product. This is a true "next-generation" headset, and most ordinary users will probably have to wait a long time before they can actually use it.

02 "Raising the flag" for developers

Apple Vision Pro will not be officially available to the public until next spring, and initially only in the United States.

But Apple still chose to release Vision Pro half a year earlier at WWDC. The reason behind this is, on the one hand, to release it earlier to prevent the product from leaking in the process of mass production, and on the other hand, another important consideration is the "development ecology", which Apple needs to lay out in advance to raise a flag for developers.

At present, most of the applications in the Apple Vision Pro demo are "Vision versions" of iPhone, iPad, and Mac applications, just projecting flat apps into space and hanging them up, and the actual problems they solve are no different from native iOS and macOS apps.

The Vision App, which is native to visionOS and built with a spatial model, still requires the imagination of third-party developers to create.

Apple has not defined the specific use scenarios of Apple Vision Pro, but rather broadly demonstrated that it can run iPhone, iPad, Mac apps, display 3D photos and videos, and cover many scenarios such as home entertainment, productivity office, communication and collaboration.

In Apple's demo, Vision Pro can be everything from a phone, tablet, computer, TV and other computing devices at the same time. But how to go beyond these traditional computing devices and provide a unique experience is still something that developers need to explore.

It's fair to say that this time around, Apple Vision Pro smells like a "development kit" inside and out. It's not just that it was released at WWDC, it's not just that it's priced high, it's that it doesn't have a built-in battery, it's powered by an external battery, and it only lasts 2 hours without power.

After the event, some iOS developers argued that the Apple Vision Pro was almost a development version of the hardware for development teams to debug at their desks, which is why there was no built-in battery. The Vision App developed by developers on this generation of products will run on future next-generation products. It is likely that subsequent products will optimize the lightweight design, eventually achieving a built-in battery and lowering the price for a broader consumer market.

No one knows exactly what Apple's intentions are, but the only thing that's certain is that the entire XR development ecosystem will be given a shot in the arm with Apple's impetus.

03 VR, AR industry's "era of great sailing

With Apple's huge ship in the water, the entire VR and AR industry will usher in the "Grand Voyage Era".

In the past few years, the VR and AR industry is facing a major development dilemma is that few companies can come up with enough resources to break through the ceiling of VR and AR technology, products and development ecology. That's why Qualcomm Snapdragon XR chips are slow to iterate, Meta Quest updates are slowing down, and the global VR and AR headset shipments are declining in 2022.

Now Apple's entry means competition, but also brings more opportunities.

Over the past few decades, each time Apple has entered a new product category, it has almost always resulted in a huge incremental market gain. From iPhone opening up smartphones, iPad opening up tablets, to Apple Watch opening up watch bracelets, AirPods opening up TWS headphones ...... Apple has opened the door to many opportunities while leading the industry.

Including the way and logic of product definition, Apple Vision Pro also with many companies in the industry, formed some tacit understanding and consensus. For example, Apple has adopted the Pancake design used in Quest Pro and PICO 4 in the design of the lens.

As well as the industry's mainstream product definition is to do VR headset, but now both PICO 4 series products, or Meta just released Quest 3, have adopted a similar scheme with Apple, that is, in the front panel configuration camera, to explore the MR "virtual reality" product form.

For all companies doing VR and AR, especially those with relatively small startups, Apple brings market benefits that far outweigh competitive pressures. The curtain of the times has just opened.

On top of that, it's also those who are pioneers in the industry that offer some lower-priced options for users who want to try VR and AR.

For example, for domestic users, considering that Apple Vision Pro will not be available in China for at least a year, you can still choose PICO 4 series and experience a headset that is quite similar to Apple Vision Pro in terms of product definition at a lower price.

Whether it's the binocular 4K+ resolution, Pancake lenses, or the unibody, lightweight design, PICO 4 represents the current industry's first-tier level, while the content ecology is also relatively mature. It has also achieved the first domestic market share and the second global market share.

Many people regard the release of Apple Vision Pro as the "iPhone moment" in the field of VR and AR. However, the technology evolution cycle of the headset will be longer than that of the smartphone.

From this perspective, the most exciting thing about Apple Vision Pro is perhaps not the product itself, but the next era that it will open up.

Apple's headset is finally here, and it's called the Apple Vision Pro.

Since 2018, rumors about this mysterious headset device have never ceased. Every few months, news broke that Apple was seeking solutions in the upstream supply chain to carry out product validation, suggesting that the product was on the horizon, but each time it ended up 'skipping' until today.

This is the first time since the Apple Watch was released in 2014 that Apple has introduced a new computing platform. Everyone was expecting it. Users, developers, and even competitors in the industry were all the same. After all, in Apple's nearly half-century of entrepreneurial history, every time it has built a new hardware paradigm, it has opened up a huge incremental market.

But this time, things are getting a little delicate.

On the one hand, Apple Vision Pro has the industry's top hardware specifications and parameters, which will probably raise the headset experience to a whole new level; on the other hand, the pricing of $3499 (about RMB 25,000) also predestines it not to be like the iPhone, which will quickly spread the goods and become popular. As Apple's first product in the headset category, the Apple Vision Pro is much more symbolic than the actual revenue generated from sales. It anchors users' perceived expectations, raises a flag for developers, and is an industry-wide benchmark for experience. Regardless of the ultimate success or failure, Apple will bring an earthquake to the VR and AR industry.

From today onwards, the history of VR and AR has turned a new page.

01 $3499 "next-generation headset

Apple Vision Pro is equipped with a set of hardware configuration beyond the norm.

The first is the resolution, as previously announced, Apple Vision Pro is equipped with a monocular super 4K display module, plus a three-piece Pancake lens solution, and the total number of pixels in the entire display system is up to 23 million.

This display system has not yet reached the "monocular 8K" retina level, but it is also quite close, surpassing all the headset products currently on the market.

Apple has also spared no expense in sensor configuration. In addition to four built-in cameras for eye-tracking, Apple has also equipped the front panel of the headset with as many as 13 sensors, including high-definition cameras and laser sensors that capture and sense the user's surroundings, providing Apple Vision Pro with complete AR capabilities.

For many years, Apple has insisted on developing AR (augmented reality) technology, believing that computing devices cannot be completely divorced from reality. Including the previous "meta-universe" concept due to the Meta renaming and a big hit, Cook has also publicly expressed that he does not think VR is the direction of technological evolution.

But the technology associated with VR headsets is now mainstream in the industry. Even the Apple Vision Pro had to adopt the VR solution, and through the external camera, it was magically transformed into an AR platform.

The end result is that the Apple Vision Pro costs a lot, and the pricing is quite impressive. A media report previously compiled a supply chain quote for the Apple Vision Pro and found that the cost of the components alone was over $1,500, and the final price was $3,499.

It can be said that, despite the official release, within 1-2 years, Apple Vision Pro will still not immediately enter the lives of most ordinary people. Most consumers, especially domestic users, will not buy this generation of products.

Previously, it was revealed that Apple's sales target for the first year of Apple Vision Pro launch was set at 1 million units. This sales target is very conservative for Apple. For reference, when the first generation of Apple Watch was released, the number of reservations on the first day alone was more than 1 million.

Apple Vision Pro's high pricing means the product won't roll out quickly｜Apple

But given the size of the VR/AR market as a whole, that 1 million sales target is ambitious. After all, the total number of VR/AR headsets shipped worldwide in 2022 will be just 8.8 million, so if Apple manages to sell 1 million Apple Vision Pro units, it could take about 10 percent of the market. Considering that Apple will almost certainly launch lower-priced, next-generation products for a wider audience in the future, a first-year sales of 1 million would be a very good start.

What is certain is that the Apple Vision Pro will have a longer development blueprint than any previous Apple product. This is a true "next-generation" headset, and most ordinary users will probably have to wait a long time before they can actually use it.

02 "Raising the flag" for developers

Apple Vision Pro will not be officially available to the public until next spring, and initially only in the United States.

But Apple still chose to release Vision Pro half a year earlier at WWDC. The reason behind this is, on the one hand, to release it earlier to prevent the product from leaking in the process of mass production, and on the other hand, another important consideration is the "development ecology", which Apple needs to lay out in advance to raise a flag for developers.

At present, most of the applications in the Apple Vision Pro demo are "Vision versions" of iPhone, iPad, and Mac applications, just projecting flat apps into space and hanging them up, and the actual problems they solve are no different from native iOS and macOS apps.

The Vision App, which is native to visionOS and built with a spatial model, still requires the imagination of third-party developers to create.

Apple has not defined the specific use scenarios of Apple Vision Pro, but rather broadly demonstrated that it can run iPhone, iPad, Mac apps, display 3D photos and videos, and cover many scenarios such as home entertainment, productivity office, communication and collaboration.

In Apple's demo, Vision Pro can be everything from a phone, tablet, computer, TV and other computing devices at the same time. But how to go beyond these traditional computing devices and provide a unique experience is still something that developers need to explore.

It's fair to say that this time around, Apple Vision Pro smells like a "development kit" inside and out. It's not just that it was released at WWDC, it's not just that it's priced high, it's that it doesn't have a built-in battery, it's powered by an external battery, and it only lasts 2 hours without power.

After the event, some iOS developers argued that the Apple Vision Pro was almost a development version of the hardware for development teams to debug at their desks, which is why there was no built-in battery. The Vision App developed by developers on this generation of products will run on future next-generation products. It is likely that subsequent products will optimize the lightweight design, eventually achieving a built-in battery and lowering the price for a broader consumer market.

No one knows exactly what Apple's intentions are, but the only thing that's certain is that the entire XR development ecosystem will be given a shot in the arm with Apple's impetus.

03 VR, AR industry's "era of great sailing

With Apple's huge ship in the water, the entire VR and AR industry will usher in the "Grand Voyage Era".

In the past few years, the VR and AR industry is facing a major development dilemma is that few companies can come up with enough resources to break through the ceiling of VR and AR technology, products and development ecology. That's why Qualcomm Snapdragon XR chips are slow to iterate, Meta Quest updates are slowing down, and the global VR and AR headset shipments are declining in 2022.

Now Apple's entry means competition, but also brings more opportunities.

Over the past few decades, each time Apple has entered a new product category, it has almost always resulted in a huge incremental market gain. From iPhone opening up smartphones, iPad opening up tablets, to Apple Watch opening up watch bracelets, AirPods opening up TWS headphones ...... Apple has opened the door to many opportunities while leading the industry.

Including the way and logic of product definition, Apple Vision Pro also with many companies in the industry, formed some tacit understanding and consensus. For example, Apple has adopted the Pancake design used in Quest Pro and PICO 4 in the design of the lens.

As well as the industry's mainstream product definition is to do VR headset, but now both PICO 4 series products, or Meta just released Quest 3, have adopted a similar scheme with Apple, that is, in the front panel configuration camera, to explore the MR "virtual reality" product form.

For all companies doing VR and AR, especially those with relatively small startups, Apple brings market benefits that far outweigh competitive pressures. The curtain of the times has just opened.

On top of that, it's also those who are pioneers in the industry that offer some lower-priced options for users who want to try VR and AR.

For example, for domestic users, considering that Apple Vision Pro will not be available in China for at least a year, you can still choose PICO 4 series and experience a headset that is quite similar to Apple Vision Pro in terms of product definition at a lower price.

Whether it's the binocular 4K+ resolution, Pancake lenses, or the unibody, lightweight design, PICO 4 represents the current industry's first-tier level, while the content ecology is also relatively mature. It has also achieved the first domestic market share and the second global market share.

Many people regard the release of Apple Vision Pro as the "iPhone moment" in the field of VR and AR. However, the technology evolution cycle of the headset will be longer than that of the smartphone.

From this perspective, the most exciting thing about Apple Vision Pro is perhaps not the product itself, but the next era that it will open up.