Photo: Apple
Can Apple Get Consumers to Wear VR Headsets?
Apple’s recent unveiling of the Vision Pro, its first mixed-reality headset, wowed tech bloggers, although many questioned whether a “killer app” will have to be necessary to drive mainstream adoption.
Representing Apple’s first new product category since the Apple Watch’s arrival in 2014, Vision Pro was described as a computer that augments reality by seamlessly blending physical and digital worlds.
“In the same way that Mac introduced us to personal computing and iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Apple Vision Pro will introduce us to spatial computing,” proclaimed CEO Tim Cook at Apple’s annual developers conference.
Seen as a step above VR headsets from Meta and others, Vision Pro, which launches in early 2024, earned praise for its resolution, computing power, and passthrough, or the ability to view physical surroundings while wearing an immersive device.
The lofty price, $3,500, is expected to come down as the product scales. New apps and features are also expected to create more value. Apple is predicting slower adoption than the Apple Watch and iPhone.
A few bloggers called out Vision Pro’s isolated nature, with most demonstrations showing individuals interacting with the devices alone. Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern questioned whether many people would ever be comfortable wearing “nerd helmets” to experience Vision Pro or the metaverse.
Financial Times’ John Gapper said Apple’s accomplishment was making “the mass appeal of such a device plausible” in the face of widespread skepticism over the metaverse. He wrote, “It unveiled something that is both more familiar and more sophisticated than what came before, and rendered today’s virtual worlds even less enticing.”
“Apple has a knack for entering a product category at just the right time,” wrote New York Times’ Kevin Roose. He further believes wearing mixed-reality headsets could evolve into a “social norm,” similar to how checking messages on an Apple Watch has become acceptable behavior.
“You might feel self-conscious putting on a Vision Pro today,” he said. “But a few years from now, if a third of your co-workers are joining Zoom calls with their headsets, and you see people watching VR movies on every flight you take, it might not feel so dumb.”
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you think Vision Pro has a chance to be the next breakout hit for Apple? What do you see as the main hurdles toward adoption by consumers?
Poll
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I think this will be a long-burning “breakout hit” – it’ll be under the radar for everyone except developers for at least a few years, until suddenly it’s the hot thing to have. However, I wouldn’t compare it to the Quest – it’s better to think about this as a new UI for your computer, than it is to think about anything like VR or XR. But it’s for exactly that reason that I think it’s got a shot. That said, my over/under on when you will see someone wearing it on a plane is mid-2024.
There has to be a lot more compelling apps and a much lower price to drive adoption of Vision Pro. Also, the form factor still seems too bulky to be compelling. I don’t think this will be a revolutionary product for Apple, at least not in its current form.
Although I am an Apple fan, I don’t see this as a hit , at least in the near future for most consumers.
I do believe this opens the door for other competitors to bring their versions to the market.
I’m with David Naumann. This product may have a role at home improvement and furniture stores, but I don’t see adoption in the near future. We’re just not there yet.
You can get some people to do just about anything. That’s not meant as snark. There are just a lot of factors that push Vision Pro into micro niche territory and cost and consumer receptivity aren’t the only hurdles. To make it work, stores/marketplaces will need to carry a full range of sizes and versions. Returns will be a nightmare and liability for accidents and health incidences will create additional pressure. Of course, only highly-knowledgeable sales associates will be qualified to extole the benefits and best practices. It’s a steep hill to climb but Vision Pro will no doubt usher in a new era of immersive wearables. It just might not be fun going first.
Apple’s Vision Pro will provide a steep 3D learning curve for retailers and shoppers alike. Online shopping will likely evolve into a Matrix-like experience, but don’t look for stores filled with VR-goggled customers any time soon.
Google Glass basically creeped everyone out and has morphed into an industrial wearable to help with picking, etc. Apple’s new device is incredibly high tech, logically high-priced (as an innovator prosumer item), and makes you look like a Star Wars extra. That being said, this is the future, and retailers need to get up to speed on what this means to their brands going forward. I always say that retail is theater. By the time the sequel to this first Vision Pro comes out, retailers better have found a way to figure out their wearable VR strategy for real.
I am confident that APPLE can get the average consumer to actually eat an apple a day. While adoption is slow, the use of some type of visual augmentation to interact with technology is now. I can see this working for screenless engagement and then moving into virtual realities.
Anyone who says it is too expensive, bulky, or doesn’t have enough apps has not been watching technology for the last decades.
It would not surprise me if, in the next five years, I give up sitting at the coffee shop with my computer and writing my daily RetailWire and just put on my $500 goggles and read and dictate.
In ten years…well, imagine the differnece between your flip phone in 1997 and the first iPhone. Only technological progress will be faster.
This specific device, no, it won’t by itself be the hit. This is geared towards early adopters to work through the next iteration. What it’s really going to take, ultimately, is a device that can do AR and VR, and not have the weight or isolation of some of these earlier models as well as have much better battery life. While I am bullish on VR and AR, we still have a long road ahead to garner mass adoption, and that is a mix of price, functionality, and offerings.
Eventually, yes, absolutely. The question is how long for the mass adoption. This current version is not priced for the masses. But it doesn’t need to be. It just needs to be adopted by tech-first luxury buyers and developers to create demand via the right apps and use cases. As the price comes down for future headsets the adoption will be there. For comparison, how many people thought Apple was crazy for charging $1000 for an iPhone without those carrier subsidies? Today, iPhone buyers don’t blink at that. The same will happen here.