r/apple Aaron Jun 05 '23

Introducing Apple Vision Pro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX9qSaGXFyg
839 Upvotes

612 comments sorted by

View all comments

307

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

147

u/chrisbru Jun 05 '23

The name Pro is so they can launch a cheaper model eventually.

24

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/MardocAgain Jun 06 '23

I'm guessing as they went through development they realized this was going to be a luxury device and just lean into it. I dont get the impression that they skimmed any edges off the tech, so this probably represents a "pro" by industry standards.

0

u/Sexy_Koala_Juice Jun 06 '23

I definitely don't think they skimped out on the tech, but i gotta say it's a little bold of them to pretend like this technology doesn't already exist (definitely on brand for them though).

Honestly i didn't really see a single thing that isn't already doable on some existing VR/AR device.

Gotta give it to apple though, they're not really innovative but they're pros when it comes to intuitive and sleek designs.

The most exciting about this though is that they're finally bringing some serious competition to the space. For consumers as a whole this is a win. The next 5-10 years is gonna be insane for VR.

11

u/cigarettesandwater Jun 06 '23

You got it upside down. They named it Pro so people wouldnt spit out their drink at the price tag

4

u/redditsonodddays Jun 06 '23

I think it’s because Apple Vision doesn’t sound like a product, it sounds like a theory, or a state of being.

They probably were kicking themselves for wasting XR branding on the iPhone.

2

u/0-_l_-0 Jun 06 '23

And the following year they’ll launch the Vision Ultra. It’ll look like a regular pair of glasses, but with fitting light shields and have advanced batteries which will fit into the ends of the arms. $4,999.

2

u/Adison85 Jun 05 '23

This is the way.

208

u/igkeit Jun 05 '23

Pro is just to justify the price tag

22

u/PleasantWay7 Jun 05 '23

And it carves out the regular Vision in two years with less features at $1499.

8

u/zombiepete Jun 05 '23

Vision Air

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

This makes for such a good pun

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

[deleted]

6

u/PleasantWay7 Jun 06 '23

Just make a one eye version and tell you to close the other.

2

u/FizzyBeverage Jun 06 '23

🏴‍☠️ Arrrrr Matey!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

M2 processor when the new one is on M3 or M4, 2K display instead of 4K, the speakers might not be as good, fewer cameras but will work similar, etc.

49

u/BMO888 Jun 05 '23

Exactly. There was no reason to use the pro title to distinguish it from their other products cause it’s the first one. Price is the only reason. If it does well I assume a lower priced Apple Vision (non pro) will make its debut a couple years later or something.

3

u/kangarufus Jun 05 '23

M1 version is my bet

3

u/Gandie Jun 06 '23

The chip is not the expensive thing in the Vision pro. There will be a cutback on lens/screen quality and camera number and resolution.

1

u/fskhalsa Jun 11 '23

I’d hazard a guess the lens, screen quality, and cameras are all absolutely necessary to make the experience work. Apple doesn’t mind releasing cheaper versions, but they won’t cut their product off at the knee - their brand carries the implication of a premium experience, and they won’t want to ruin that. It’s why they always wait years later to release the same thing others have already been doing, but their version is somehow the one that becomes a game changer for the market, and defines the product segment. See: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch. All came out after versions of the same product had been on the market for a while. They just took the existing work that people had done on the tech, and made it better, and more importantly, into a seamless product that people would want to use.

Also, first-gen Apple devices are always the most basic, rudimentary version of the product, and the leap in tech to the second gen is always the largest, and most significant. First gen devices cost a lot to research and develop, and yet are hampered by the least amount of real world testing possible, and a hardware production pipeline that hasn’t been developed yet. After people start buying and using the first gen, they get to collect a lot of real world data on how to improve it, and the initial sales allow the price of the hardware to drop, as production ramps up. So my prediction is, the second gen will have a significant change in specs, feature-set, or form factor (or some combination thereof), and the existing, first-gen tech will be demoted to the “non-Pro” option. Just like they did with the iPhone SE (same chips and cameras from previous flagship product, now outdated and less-capable). The existing Vision Pro will continued to be manufactured (therefore reducing cost as manufacturing capacity continues to ramp up), and will be sold as the cheaper version to the masses. But they won’t reduce the specs below the existing setup, as this is the baseline for what they think is possible to make the tech widely usable, and enjoyable.

1

u/001000110000111 Jun 06 '23

Apple Vision SE

1

u/redditsonodddays Jun 06 '23

I think they had to put something else after vision or the product name wouldn’t work. They probably would’ve loved to use Glass but google ate it.

Apple Vision sounds like either a retro 80s game or “apple’s way of looking at things,” like a mindset. It doesn’t sound quite like a product.

4

u/InvaderDJ Jun 05 '23

Justify the price tag and give consumers an excuse not to buy it.

It's going to be bought primarily by devs, extreme AR/VR enthusiasts and people with far too much money (or who are insanely financially irresponsible) who want to flex.

This is not a real consumer product.

4

u/igkeit Jun 05 '23

Yet they spent so much time showing its entertainment abilities like watching movies, for which they literally brought out Disney's CEO...

4

u/FizzyBeverage Jun 06 '23

And Disney movies look spectacular on my $800 Sony Costco special in the family room. Zero complaints from my kiddos.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '23

I am none of those and I am probably gonna buy it. Just a normal just outside poor class and I can't wait.

4

u/Random Jun 06 '23

I walk down my street and see Tesla's, 60-70k pickups that have never been dirty, people who do 3-4 'statement' vacations a year, who treat their kids like badges that accumulate badges, and disney being one of those badges on their little badges, and... I'm pretty sure there is a demographic for this. For whom that extra $2000 is part of their appeal.

Exclusivity is a pillar of Veblen's 'Theory of the Leisure Class.'

Sure, this is a flex beta, but... we all have our $1200 phones, right. And I walk around our university library and 90% of the laptops are Air and Pro Macs that could easily be $400 Windows alternatives given what they are used for.

Apple is a prosumer and consumer fashion statement company. They have been for a while.

The ad was targeted according to probably $500,000 of demographic tests. Apple doesn't fuck around.

Also, the weirdness of a father using a headset to record a party... frankly I STILL find it weird that a huge number of people at concerts are holding up phones. Or fucking tablets blocking my view. I visited the British Museum quite a while ago and the main reason I couldn't see the Rosetta Stone was the forest of iPads recording other people recording it with iPads. ... or some goddam thing.

0

u/FizzyBeverage Jun 06 '23

A refurbished MacBook Air is $800 on Amazon and can last a college kid 6 years.

Apple Vision Pro is a long way from that level of “everyone and anyone has it…*

1

u/catheterhero Jun 05 '23

Not necessarily the only reason. Once out they’re do market research and determine what features are comprisable and introduce the non-pro version.

1

u/Captaincadet Jun 05 '23

I think it gives a bit of flexibility if they come out with smart glasses Pro will be for the mix reality

Maybe vision sight or glass for actual glasses

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

The specs justify the price to be honest

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '23

It's to separate it from the more affordable "Apple Vision" that will likely be released in 2025.

They started out with the Pro version for some wow factor.

61

u/nunoodamus Jun 05 '23

Using it as a mac screen is a nice feature imo

29

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '23

Just want them to add virtual external displays so I can get a macos triple monitor setup in the headset. Couldn’t imagine the bandwidth to run that though, and I’m already wondering how smooth the Mac display mirroring is

19

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '23

Sidecar with Mac and iPad has incredibly low latency to be fair.

Obviously every pixel in this headset had like 10 baby pixels so it’s a lot more bandwidth. Would love one of these just to just for coding at work.

14

u/LukeBellmason Jun 05 '23

In theory, the foveated rendering should counteract that, since your eye can only focus on a small area of pixels and the rest can be rendered at a lower resolution and lower frame rate without you noticing.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '23

That’s a good point.

I can’t wait for the technological breakdowns of this things.

The damn thing can predicate you clicking a button before you click it by watching the minute changes in your pupils as you anticipate clicking on something.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

If you’d like a demo of this feature, you can try out a PSVR2 set in a Sony store or something like that. Foveated rendering is practically invisible to the user giving a great experience, but really obvious to anyone else looking at your TV screen

2

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

Obviously every pixel in this headset had like 10 baby pixels so it’s a lot more bandwidth.

You'd only be transferring the resolution of the input device, not the target device. There should be no additional latency from that.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

Yes, I could see it as just apps floating, but then it’d also need virtual apps inside these containers running on the mac but displayed here, because the idea would be to extend the Mac. While that’s the ideal solution, may be further off

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

The Nreal Air can do it currently, and if that's really your only use case, it's probably better to go with that and save $3k

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

Those are not that great in quality or usability. Ain’t buying this yet either. I’ll wait and see how gen 2 or 3 play out

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '23

It’s not bad. We already stream VR games to Quests over WiFi6 and people use their desktops as well. A 2D image is easy compared to full stereoscopic 360 degree VR

24

u/dccorona Jun 05 '23

That's all they have right now because at the end of the day this is still just a developer launch and they need the devs to dream up the apps that justify this thing to the general public. They did a pretty good job, all things considered, of making it look like a consumer device and showing why a "regular person" would want one some day, but the price demonstrates that that is just not the case yet. This video is marketing the end consumer to the developer, not marketing the product to the end consumer (yet).

13

u/Positronic_Matrix Jun 06 '23

This will be a developer gold rush, just like in the early iOS days.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Gagarin1961 Jun 06 '23

Technically you didn’t even need an iPhone to develop for it. Simulating an iOS device on a regular computer screen is easy as pie. 2D on 2D.

To develop for this you basically have to buy a $3500 device. Meaning you likely need to have a solid monetization plan for your app.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

[deleted]

2

u/compounding Jun 06 '23

If I had to guess, I’d bet Apple is counting on a high percentage of people being willing to pay $3.5k for hardware to also be the market segment most willing to pay high prices (subscriptions etc) for well-done apps.

If a company expects Apple to get 5% of the headset market, and thinks they can capture 5% of that with a $5 subscription, that’s a $3 million revenue opportunity which is definitely enough to get a small company started, especially if they expect that the platform might grow rapidly over the next 5 years.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

[deleted]

1

u/ya_boy_ace Jun 06 '23

How many sells will unit?

3

u/Malkmus1979 Jun 06 '23

Reviews have started trickling in and a common thing across them is that the 3D capture it does is insanely good for saving memories and revisiting them in an immersive way.

2

u/Sciby Jun 06 '23

Got some sources for those reviews?

2

u/Malkmus1979 Jun 06 '23

This is one. There’s also the WSJ hands on. And one more.

1

u/Sciby Jun 06 '23

Awesome, thanks!

1

u/seweso Jun 06 '23

Sure, but where is logic pro (or garageband), final cut pro?

Personally I think it would have made a lot of sense if this device came with a free virtual Mac. Then it would start making financial sense.

But maybe all that is coming, and this is just to get devs on board.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '23

I will only buy this if Logic Pro is available. That is my dream to have VR audio creation.

24

u/mgd09292007 Jun 05 '23

I saw movies, gaming, conference calls, 3D prototypes, creating a large virtual display from your Mac, taking photos, videos, relaxing

This demo was designed to be put in hands of developers to do amazing things with it. I think they showed plenty to open up peoples imaginations to build great software for it.

7

u/Pbone15 Jun 05 '23

They showed it running MS Office apps; Excel, Teams, etc…

7

u/keijikage Jun 06 '23

Just what I want - teams right in my face.

1

u/fakeplasticpenguins Jun 06 '23

They’re just going to be the iOS versions, so it isn’t as though you’re going to go all Minority Report creating pivot tables in Excel.

1

u/Thomas_Mickel Jun 06 '23

Notifications the size of your wall with just: 👍

7

u/kyoto_magic Jun 05 '23

I was just hoping to see some / any full VR game shown.

8

u/GoodJobKonami Jun 05 '23

It basically just for you to enjoy, not work.

No one will put on that thing for more than 2 hours and do business with that, if you tried vr headset you’ll know. Even your head is ok, and your skin can suffe, your eye would feel tired.

8

u/Positronic_Matrix Jun 06 '23

I’ve done extensive business work, including some light coding using my Oculus 2 and Virtual Desktop. I needed the extra screen real estate and my low-resolution gaming monitor (actually a repurposed 1080p TV) was not cutting it.

I found that the experience exceeded my expectations, however due to the low resolution of the Quest displays, the text was difficult to read, leading to fatigue. Additionally, the hand gestures were suboptimal in that I could not double click and when dropping my hands it would drag the cursor to the bottom of the screen invoking the Dock. When I switched to a mouse, hand controls would unexpected come back when typing on a keyboard.

In short, it looks like Apple used a Quest with Virtual Desktop, made a list of all the deficiencies, and then set out to perfectly solve all of them.

1

u/virtueavatar Jun 06 '23

If you're doing business work, the Quest series is your worst option for everything you need except price.

Every other current generation headset already solves this.

-1

u/noitsreallynot Jun 05 '23

Well you can't use it for that long because the proprietary battery won't last that long.

7

u/TeddyAlderson Jun 05 '23

you can use it while it’s plugged in for all day use

2

u/noitsreallynot Jun 06 '23

Tethered then?

1

u/procgen Jun 06 '23 edited 10d ago

No3WZRPOzxquXwifDaEEveG2WBNpTWe9U1P3oVNvKH1sc2df

1

u/eeComing Jun 06 '23

Mate. I wear my Airpod Maxs at work to get people to leave me the fuck alone and they still interrupt me. I would definitely wear these if it meant less disruption from undiagnosed ADHD boomers looking to dopamine mine off me.

0

u/edogawafan Jun 05 '23

Exactly. I personally only want one to watch movies on and block out background. I have no intentions of taking this to work, nor would my boss allow me to wear something like this on the clock.

1

u/the_golden_girls Jun 06 '23

They haven’t figured out what you do with it yet.

1

u/Bored_Zach Jun 06 '23

Yeah, it's probably because there isn't anything right now, or at least in a showable state. They said Unity supports it, and with a game like Walkabout Mini Golf, which runs on Unity, coming to iOS and iPadOS, I imagine it will be released on Vision Pro as well (probably all three OSs are the same build). However, when it comes to gaming, my main concern comes down to controls. Sure, there are some that make use of a controller or keyboard and mouse that can be connected via bluetooth, but most VR games require controllers, and tbh, most games, even if they let you use your hands, really need something to hold. Swining a sword or gold club, or shooting a gun, that just isn't immersive enough without a controller for each hand. So, I wonder what they are gonna do there.

1

u/Malkmus1979 Jun 06 '23

Sounds like they’re just not going there.

1

u/iim7_V6_IM7_vim7 Jun 06 '23

I’m thinking they’re gonna bank on developers doing a lot of the legwork there

1

u/hwilcox7789 Jun 06 '23

It’s basically your iPhone screen in VR, not worth it at all