Oh no! It's the Apple Vision Pro!
The tech giant's AR/VR headset is a prototype of our isolated future
It happened: Apple announced a helmet.
Well, okay, not a helmet per se, but a $3,500 augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) headset.
Its name? The Vision Pro. And it’s an entirely new product category for the company.
Now, The Rectangle isn’t interested too much in the technical side of the headset; the focus is more on what this means. But if you’d like some more info on the specifics of the Vision Pro, I suggest you head over here or watch the video below.
Instead of that, we’re going to focus on two main things today: the shape of AR/VR hardware to come and what the Vision Pro says about the future Apple wants.
Quick note, I’ll refer to these sort of devices as XR (extended reality) hardware going forward, as that’s a more elegant catch-all term.
Here’s my theory about XR goggles of all kinds: they won’t gain true popularity until they look like a regular pair of glasses.
Consider the Vision Pro; it’s a beautiful bit of engineering, a gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing product, all clean lines and elegant curves combined with breathtaking technology — but try and tell me this isn’t some goofy-ass bullshit:
No one in their right mind wants to live — or look — like this.
I could continue to dunk on this aesthetic myself, but Apple’s promo video serves up a steaming slice of exactly why this version of the Vision Pro won’t catch on.
It’s creepy. This is a creepy situation. It’s a Victorian diving suit crossed with 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Could you imagine coming home and seeing this? Pure horror.
This weirdness, the uncanny valley of XR headsets, won’t dissipate until the form factor isn’t an appalling affront to all we hold dear.
For that to happen, the tech has to be borderline indistinguishable from — yes, you guessed it — a regular pair of glasses.
But you know what? Apple has got the closest so far.
As bizarre-looking as the Vision Pro is, there’s still an appealing product there. And improvements will come. Fast.
Several versions down the line (maybe Vision Pro 4 or 5), we’ll have something far more discrete. If this happens alongside a drop in price, then these sorts of XR glasses will become ubiquitous.
Repeat that statement and you’ll often hear a rebuttal that questions why anyone would want this sort of tech.
Take the Vision Pro. The overriding feedback from reviewers can be characterised as, “amazing product, but what the hell are you meant to use it for?”
And at this stage, even Apple doesn’t know. I mean, the best examples it has for using the Vision Pro is watching TV…
…and, uh, working on presentations?
To reframe that, everything the Vision Pro offers can be done better by pre-existing tech.
Why strap an inordinately expensive gadget across your face when a TV, laptop, and phone can do the same job but better?
It’s an enticing argument, but a short-sighted one. Use cases will come.
Think of the Vision Pro in its current state as a public prototype.
As the headset gets smaller and the battery bigger, there’s an untold amount of potential here. Think about overlaid directions while walking, seeing info about paintings appear when you’re in a gallery, or having a foreign language automatically translated.
There’s an endless array of ways that XR glasses can improve our lives — it’ll just take some time and polish to get there.
The question, then, becomes: why is Apple making this investment? Spending billions on a product that isn’t ready for mass consumption?
As always, the answer is money.
In the Apple Vision Pro’s announcement video, I was struck with one overriding feeling: isolation.
And this is by design.
In the digital age, attention is money. Creators of digital platforms effectively control what we see and consume. With that comes ad and subscription revenue.
An XR headset is the end goal of this attention war. Well, before we get to eye implants and brain chips at least.
A pair of smart glasses we wear all day will become the digital platform. Everything we do, see, say, hear, or touch will be tracked via a headset. Companies will have all the data on us they could ever want — and our undivided attention to use it on.
This move will see technology shift from being a tool we use to interact with the world, into a membrane that coats our every interaction.
A person, in this future, becomes a quantifiable, purchasable entity.
Yes, for this to happen you’d actually have to buy a Vision Pro — but I don’t trust myself enough not to.
P.S. If you want to read more about the impact Apple will have on the XR industry, I wrote a huge feature for TNW about it, which you can read here.
I concur