The Vision Pro is it.

I have read and heard a lot about Vision Pro (VP) from a lot of different voices since its release - in my opinion most missed the mark.  I have now used it daily for the path two weeks, and from my perspective, comparing VP the existing market of VR/AR headsets is like comparing the iPhone to the Blackberry.  Yes, it is that much different and that much better.  The VP is a seminal moment for the industry because of the product differentiation and total value it provides. 

First, using the Vision Pro is immediately a different paradigm.  I have used the Meta, HTC, tried the Varjo and HoloLens, and a number of others - they all present a different user value and experience.  The VP presents a more opportunistic and robust work experience, with incredible multitasking that provides a wealth of productivity. While the others are typically focused on one App’s value – the VP is designed for me to hop between App experiences like I do in a computer, tablet, or phone - or have them open all at once. They is radically new and different from the existing options. If you think about it, very few of us ever use one App all day or would buy a technology serving one App’s function.  The VP is a computer and 5 monitors strapped to my face with unique multi-tasking capability allowing me to have 4-6 windows and Apps open at once – I just turn my head to the side and they are there, or they are behind the one I am using.  They are active and alive.  I need the value from all of them to justify the ROI (however I quantify it).

Yes, it is heavier than the Quest, but not in a way that bothers me (I wore it for about 6 hours while working the other day and could have worn it longer).  Yes, it has a cord attached to the battery, but I don’t really notice it.  I can still walk around when I want to, but you aren’t going jogging with any headset (yet).  I brought it on a trip for work this week and used it in in the hotel each morning and it was just like being in my home office with my multi-monitored desktop. I can now do everything at max productivity, anywhere, with as many screens as I want.  With the AR pass through I can easily see things around me when I want to – I don’t need to take VP off.  I login immediately and effectively with my eyes, and when I put on the device it again it brings me to exactly where I left – a huge time saver and a wonderful feature expectation.

Second, as I engage with the software, Microsoft Office has never looked better and more engaging then is does on the VP.  It is a seamless experience and I navigate through all the various Apps exactly as I do on the desktop.  There are great mail apps and web environments ready for me, and yes, the seamless integration to the Apple ecosystem of texts, Facetime, and other features is perfect.  Shareplay is an incredible feature that allows me to interact with VP users in the same Apps in a powerful way.  I have already found a few Apps that I am using regularly.  Yes, I do need more and better Apps to add to the value on VP – but they are coming.  As an App developer myself I could not have built for this environment without really understanding and feeling it firsthand.  Think about it, Uber wasn’t one of the first iPhone Apps - this platform is ripe for incredible growth.

Third, after you have gone hands free in VR and AR, you never want to go back.  Actually, I want to use my hands with every technology now just like I do my voice.  The gestures and movements are incredible and while it takes a few hours to perfect – using my eyes as the mouse becomes normal and using my voice to provide the text is powerful.  This hands free paradigm is one I believe will start to expand out in many ways as we free our hands with all of our technologies just like we talk to them today.

Finally, Disney World is expensive, but we all pay to take our kids there while we could easily take them to the amusement park in our state.  You pay for the Disney experience because you can see where they put your money. The VP feels the same.  We all have expensive iPhones because they are better, and for that reason the VP can demand the higher price point and I think it is worth it.  And yes, Apple will release a Vision device (dropping the Pro) down the road – but they did exactly what Tesla did when it launched a premium quality car first.  You start with the great product to set the stage, and then you can branch out.  Starbucks price per cup of coffee changed the entire coffee industry in the same way VP will. 

Now, at essentially $4,000 per device this is not yet a consumer price point for most - but it easily a business price (at least in healthcare).  In healthcare, I already have Radiologists and Surgeons wearing this device and being more productive today – and some of the opportunities we are talking with software developers that are coming soon will blow your mind.  There is a line out the door of other specialties that also have great use cases – so we will need a lot of these devices once we have figured out the business model. 

Yes, we are still going to use a lot of Meta Quest devices in training scenarios, and they will serve those singular purpose needs very well.  We will do that because at $500 per device they are the right solution to that problem, and we need to start shipping them everywhere to bring our expensive healthcare environments out to the people who need to be immersed into them.  And that is how we should look at it – XR (VR/AR) is here to stay, it fill into many different formats of utilization, and is only going to grow.  The value is there.

I will not get into it too deeply, but the other huge problem with the existing VR industry is that it modelled itself off the home video game market – instead of the smart phone market.  This is a legacy way of distributing software and thinking about the industry in general.  From an enterprise and growth perspective, the existing industry is too fragmented, and that is problematic as each hardware platform has its own store and specific software. If you are an enterprise customer you have to side load Apps, use costly MDMs, and/or your App vendor is also providing you hardware.  That is not the paradigm consumers or businesses need or want to have in proving the value they need from the investment in a device.  The Apple App Store for the Vision Pro has the potential to bring us a distribution model for long term success as we need to evolve to a model that allows us to truly operate at scale.

What Apple has done is open an entire industry up for growth and advancement in a substantial way.  Will that hurt existing some XR competitors? Absolutely - because the bar has been raised.  Some will die off, some will get purchased and consolidate - but some will prosper more now than they were before as more and more people move to the space and help it grow.

Great job Tim, I know you aren’t trying to make Steve proud – but he would be.