# Apple Vision Pro is not a "savior"

By [taptap](https://paragraph.com/@tiptap) · 2023-06-08

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"The Mac brought us into the era of the personal computer, the iPhone brought us into the era of mobile computing, and Vision Pro will bring us into the era of spatial computing!"

These were the opening words of Apple CEO Tim Cook as he introduced the Vision Pro, the MR device announced today, and the highest expectations for a product that has been eight years in the making and repeatedly jumped the gun.

MR was undoubtedly the topic that received the most attention from the outside world at this year's Apple Developer Conference (WWDC 2023). Just a few hours before the event, Cook himself tweeted that "this year will be Apple's best developer conference ever.

After a long, if tasteless, 80 minutes - with executives introducing new developments in iOS, iPadOS 17, macOS, watchOS, tvOS and other traditional projects - the long-awaited "One More thing The "One More thing" session finally arrived, with Apple Vision Pro making its grand finale appearance.

Vision Pro not only brings together Apple's eight years of hard work, but also carries the expectations of many VR and AR practitioners. VR and AR have long been seen as the carrier of next-generation smart hardware devices after smartphones, but after years of sinking and completing rounds of industry reshuffling, the industry still seems to have not ushered in the inflection point of the explosion.

Given the glory of Apple in the Mac and iPhone era, people have reason to believe that Apple will continue this success, lead the market demand and become the last "savior" of the VR and AR industry this time.

Cook's comments on "opening the era of space computing" also seem to push Vision Pro to an obligatory height. But can Apple really do it?

We interviewed several VR and AR practitioners to see if the release of Apple's Vision Pro can really open up a new year.

1.  The three highlights of Vision Pro
    

As the most important hardware product released by Apple after 2014, Vision Pro still brings a lot of surprises.

In terms of overall appearance, Vision Pro is a beautiful product. Fei Wu, founder and CEO of Bright Vision, told "A Light Year": "Apple's ID design is absolutely artistic, from the high light skin-friendly material to the wide hindbrain frame, to each button and the one-piece high lens - to use a common saying, it's 'piled high with money' ergonomic answer. It's what I call, Apple's design departure-as-standard, worthy of everyone's copywork."

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/13843b71b6468c1174b3bd673f6fd10bcc8a22d7417c675e8f4a8334338df2e6.png)

Hardware-wise, Vision Pro has a top-notch configuration.

Chip: Vision Pro adopts a dual-chip design - a Mac identical M2 chip to solve the arithmetic problem, and a real-time sensor processing chip R1 to solve the latency problem. R1 can handle inputs from 12 cameras, 1 sensor and 12 microphones to ensure the content is presented in real time. To solve the problem of heat dissipation caused by high computing power, Apple has added two fans to Vision Pro to help dissipate heat.

Screen: Vision Pro is equipped with a micro-OLED screen with a total of 23 million pixels on both screens, which equates to more pixels per eye than a 4K TV, and supports 4K wide color gamut video and HDR rendering.

Sensing: Vision Pro has a total of 12 cameras covering the full range of forward, lateral and downward facing, front-facing LIDAR as well as infrared cameras and LED illuminators, 5 sensors scanning the surrounding environment non-stop, moving the user's surroundings into the virtual space as is in real time; also equipped with Optic ID iris recognition technology, after the user brings the device, the device can confirm through the pupil user identity. In terms of privacy, the device does not capture the user's gaze path during eye movement until the user's finger pinches to select the icon, then the device will record the user's behavior path.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/5e98d9985857ee8553a3f6c9d4638e4c92142fed2898c1f571486b1c0b9797d6.png)

Based on a stacked hardware configuration, Vision Pro brings a new way of interaction: instead of using a joystick, users can control the device through gestures, eye movements and Siri's voice.

According to Wu Dezhou, the founder and CEO of To the Unknown, Vision Pro defines the MR 3D spatial interaction method, which is relatively "revolutionary". If this interaction method is unanimously accepted, the future application ecosystem will develop applications according to this unified interaction method, which is a great benefit for application developers.

However, Vision Pro, in order to reduce weight, does not have a built-in battery, still dragging a physical line external power supply, the battery life is only 2 hours. The specific weight of the Vision Pro was not disclosed at the conference.

For nearsighted users, Apple has worked with Zeiss (Zeiss) optical inserts, which are fixed to the lens by magnetic attachment, thus ensuring that nearsighted users can achieve precise viewing and eye tracking even after wearing them. This personalized optical insert requires an additional fee, but Apple and Zeiss did not give a clear price.

It's worth noting that Apple did not specify directly at the event whether Vision Pro would be a VR or AR product, a headset or glasses, but rather renamed it a "spatial computing device". At the top right of Vision Pro, Apple designed a knob to adjust the immersion by seamlessly blending the ratio of "virtual reality" and "augmented reality".

Many practitioners are also discussing the details of this Apple product definition. According to Wu Fei, the Vision Pro's knob is a new standard for spatially interactive devices and is a "brilliant design.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4256a77219041f41274c1f4c5bba878af38f244a9bd267219845587ce34c2df4.png)

XREAL (formerly Nreal) founder and CEO Xu Chi said: "If Apple's product is defined as MR, XREAL is now called AR, there is no conflict between the two, the same is spatial computing and 3D, the difference is that one is more like a computer (extreme immersion, less portable), one is more like a cell phone (portable, fragmented use, but not so immersive). (so immersive), I believe they will coexist in a long time."

The person in charge of PICO said, "The integration of reality and virtual is an industry trend, such as a product can have both 'VR + MR' dual characteristics, and this trend has started since 2022. The launch of Apple Vision Pro will accelerate this trend while providing the industry with a new technical route reference in the integration of reality and imagination."

Rokid founder and CEO Zhu Mingming also said, "The future only uses the word AR, it's just the difference between VST (video see-through) and OST (optical see-through) technology and products."

On the software side, Apple still follows its usual practice of releasing supporting operating systems when launching hardware products. This time was no exception.

Apple created visionOS, a spatial computing operating system specifically for Vision Pro, with a dedicated app store and compatibility with iOS, iPadOS and other systems, seamlessly dovetailing with the software and hardware ecological resources Apple has accumulated over the years.

To the unknown Wu Dezhou believes that Vision Pro is a very practical tool platform: "Vision Pro does a better point is that it does not spend a lot of energy on 3D, digital people and other virtual content, like other VR products, but focuses on the integration of Apple's ecology. Perhaps when the application products are rich enough, Apple may really open the next era of spatial computing."

In summary, stronger computing power, more innovative interaction and a richer developer ecosystem are the three main highlights of Apple Vision Pro.

1.  The next "iPhone moment"?
    

Despite Cook's enthusiasm in the field to define the next era, but the outside world's evaluation of the Vision Pro is mixed.

The most obvious was the stock price movement. During the launch event, Apple's stock price had been on the rise before the announcement of Vision Pro, once up over 2%, but after the launch of Vision Pro, Apple's stock price began to decline. By the close of the U.S. stock market, Apple shares were trading at $179.58 per share, down 0.76%, with a total market value of $2,824.6 billion. It is evident that investors' confidence in Vision Pro is not high.

Perhaps, the lack of investor confidence comes from the imperfection of the product itself.

First of all, the launch event, Apple did not open the real machine to consumers to experience, and even the media, who were filming at the scene, were prohibited from touching it directly. vision Pro has to wait until 2024 to be listed, which reminds people of the fate of Apple's last product that was only released but not listed - AirPower.

Apple released its wireless charging product, AirPower, in 2017 and teased its launch in the coming year. But after skipping eighteen months, Apple officially axed AirPower, saying it couldn't live up to expectations. While AirPower's product status is not comparable to that of the Vision Pro, the concern is not without merit.

Even from the scenarios that have been demonstrated, Vision Pro still seems to be some distance away from the "iPhone moment".

In terms of application scenarios, Apple's presentation focused on office and entertainment scenarios such as movies, games, and social networking. In some people's view, these features do not seem to be just needed, and some even quipped, "If I talk to my colleagues with this in the office, my colleagues may think I have a problem."

In this regard, tribute to the unknown Wu Dezhou also said, on the one hand, did not see a particularly revolutionary application scenario, the current office, entertainment scenarios can only be used in relatively closed spaces. On the other hand, also did not see the product side and AI deep combination of scenarios. "After the mobile Internet era, the AI Internet era will come in full force, AI mobile Internet era, AR, VR products should be to have more combination with AI technology, so as to have a better experience and application scenarios."

In addition, Vision Pro's content ecology is relatively thin. Disney also as an important ecological partner this time, released a more spatial sense of entertainment content and interactive games. At this stage, Apple still relies heavily on ecological partners with strong technical strength to join. "I judge that Apple's expectations for Vision Pro, the core mission of the 1/2 generation is to pry the ecology and form more new application ecologies that are in line with the Vision Pro experience and device capabilities." Bright Vision Wu Fei said.

The Vision Pro is priced at $3499, about 25,000 yuan, three times the price of Meta's high-end Meta Quest Pro helmet, many users shouted "I can't afford it! "Many netizens exclaimed that they could not afford it.

The person in charge of the Bright Wind Stage said, "The price is high, which also shows that the real mass AR products are still facing a big challenge."

Based on all the above "imperfections", Apple's internal attitude toward Vision Pro was also polarized.

In terms of release time, the product's engineering team wanted to make the device lighter before releasing it, and it would take a few years to do so, which is more in line with Steve Jobs' tradition of pursuing the ultimate product experience; while the team led by COO Jeff Williams believed that the time was ripe for release.

Apple has also received mixed reviews internally about the future development of the product. Apple held an internal meeting this year where about 100 executives watched an early demonstration of the device at the Steve Jobs Theater. But eight current and former employees commented anonymously that they were concerned about the device's roughly $3,000 price tag, skeptical of its usefulness and concerned about its unproven market.

Some experts also expressed skepticism. AR/VR optics expert Karl Guttag previously wrote in an article that Apple's development of an AR/VR headset was more like a fear of missing out on new technology trends. Looking back at some key AR products in the past, from Google Glass, Magic Leap, HoloLens, although a lot of research and development costs were invested, but the market did not give the expected feedback.

But from the result, Cook is not Steve Jobs after all, he chose to stand on the side of the operation team. After all, whether Cook can leave a strong mark in Apple's history, and MR devices can be released as scheduled is closely related.

1.  Apple Vision Pro is not the savior
    

After several years of development, it seems that the spring of VR and AR industry has not yet arrived.

According to IDC data, global shipments of AR and VR headsets slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2023, with the overall AR/VR headset market down 54.4% year-on-year in the first quarter.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d350473ffcdd72492a7bcb07c4eb3295fa3a19624c88282fb9bf82d34a3ed653.png)

VR, AR itself is a very difficult business. xREAL Xu Chi once said playfully: "Why is AR so difficult? Because Hard itself has AR in it. Then what is more difficult than AR? HD AR, because the whole HARD is HD AR."

From a technical point of view, the design and manufacturing of AR devices still face many physical law limitations, and related technologies still need major breakthroughs. In addition, AR/VR headsets also face problems such as diffraction and light collection rate due to the small size of the display/optical module used. Even VST cannot solve the problem of AR optics, because VST mixed reality headsets still have limitations in social, security, and ergonomics.

The design and manufacturing difficulties of AR devices themselves require companies interested in layout to invest a lot of money and time costs, which requires more strength for the entry companies.

In fact, Apple has been investing in the AR field for many years. 2015 Apple launched the AR/VR project codenamed T288, which includes the MR headset codenamed N301 and the AR glasses codenamed N421.

Since 2015, Apple has acquired different companies in the AR industry chain almost every year, including facial tracking companies, eye-tracking companies, AR companies, VR companies, AR lens companies, VR content companies, and VR headset production companies in multiple fields.

In terms of the corresponding software ecology, Apple released ARKit (AR Toolkit) back in 2017 and will also announce the most recent version at WWDC every year. By 2022, ARKit has iterated to the sixth generation. In addition, AR Maps, Object Capture, RealityKit 2 and other new AR features have been introduced.

The above achievements are the result of Apple gathering more than a dozen executives and consistently dropping billions of dollars. Some practitioners said, "If even Apple can only do this, it shows that the industry is indeed difficult".

But even with the perfect product, who will use the product and where it will be used are the problems that companies need to face.

Before Apple released Vision Pro, many practitioners were looking forward to Apple's entry, and even saw Apple as the last "savior". However, the practitioners have been quite rational.

I personally have a very obvious feeling that the contrast between the innovation, attractiveness and influence of the products before and after the one more thing Apple launch is very obvious, and the public expectation and innovation drive of the 'next generation computing device' has reached a critical point. The computer field needs a new epoch-making terminal. savior' is slightly exaggerated, but it does boost confidence and makes everyone believe that the next generation of terminal devices after the cell phone is within reach."

PICO related person in charge said, "As a very creative brand, Apple, with its brand power, technology power and supply chain integration ability, will indeed accelerate the development of XR industry. But we also need to know that XR is an industry that requires long-term investment, so we should not look at the development of this industry with the so-called 'one hit will win' mentality. The industry is facing some extremely complex XR technology issues. We're on the verge of an exciting time, but the XR industry has a long, long way to go."

As Rokid founder Zhu Mingming wrote in his circle of friends, "There is no savior for AR entrepreneurship, this launch will not bring more confidence to the industry and the market, it still needs more efforts from the explorers in the industry to prove themselves and reserve enough food and grass to fight a long and magnificent war."

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*Originally published on [taptap](https://paragraph.com/@tiptap/apple-vision-pro-is-not-a-savior)*