Consumers interested in the Apple Vision Pro spatial computer are encouraged to book ahead for a guided, half-hour Vision Pro experience led by Apple Retail Store employees.
Kyle Orland for Ars Technica:
[A]s someone who’s been following news and hands-on reports of the Vision Pro’s unique features for months now, I was eager to get a brief glimpse into what all the fuss was about without plunking down at least $3,499 for a unit of my own.
After going through the guided Vision Pro demo at a nearby Apple Store this week, I came away with mixed feelings about how Apple is positioning its new computer interface to the public. While the short demo contained some definite “oh, wow” moments, the device didn’t come with a cohesive story pitching it as Apple’s next big general-use computing platform…
Despite the setup problems and the awkwardness of the script, the Apple Vision Pro demo was a pretty impressive affair. It was certainly head and shoulders above my experience demoing Meta’s Quest Pro, which involved a disinterested temp employee giving me minimal guidance on a handful of unimpressive apps from a disused corner of a Best Buy.
For all the “wows” that were included, the Vision Pro demo was perhaps most interesting for what it didn’t include. There was no mention of syncing with an existing MacBook display or of using the headset in any productive capacity. There was also no mention of Apple Arcade or other interactive gaming experiences… We didn’t get to try a FaceTime call in mixed reality, nor did we use Siri to dictate a text message.
It makes sense that a demo involving only 15 actual minutes in a Vision Pro headset would not highlight every feature of the headset. But the features Apple highlighted in this public demo suggest the company feels that its Vision Pro “killer apps” mostly involve the passive consumption of content — whether it’s spatial videos, Safari webpages, or 3D movies — in floating windows.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s intent seems to be to “wow” the customer during these canned retail store demos, which makes perfect sense, but they should at least include mention of the productivity — indeed, the spatial computing — features of Apple Vision Pro.
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Apple is targeting this at Engineering and Corporate use (primarily due to price at the moment), and this makes sense. It also makes sense to get CAD and Solid Works software onboard, if not even before launch, to showcase the headsets as a great collaborative engineering tool. Architectural firms showing a new building off at an abandoned lot in a city, and everyone reviewing the buildings features and effect, all huge type of engineering stuff. Apple isn’t there with any Devs yet, and they need to be.
Showing off consumer stuff to consumers makes sense. However, consumers use Mac’s A LOT. To now show how one can be productive on their Mac via Vision Pro is a miss…
Lastly, Vision Pro highly suggests an Apple Vision is due to come along in a year or so. THAT model will be the device targeted much more so to the mass market, in terms of price, feature reduction, but graphics and performance improvements for gaming and entertainment use cases.
If Apple could work with an EA to revamp a BattleFront game and make it AR, there we go. Close range can all be mapped via LiDAR, while distances mapped with the 3D camera system. Looking out my window and seeing a Star Destroyer pulling up, with the Death Star in the faded blue sky… Now we are onto something! Looking into my back yard and seeing Kylo’s transport shuttle landing and troopers coming down my stairs. Yeah, this type of AR gaming experience seems an obvious direction…
I highly doubt VP 1.0 is capable of this level of processing. However, it’s likely very close and a 3nm M3, coupled with R2 latency processor is highly likely to do the trick!
Does Apple have the ability to work and engage companies to bring about gaming visions like this? Does Apple even understand the market potential? They seemed pretty dim about live sports (still do to a large degree), so it would come as no surprise that they don’t get the gaming community and the level of high-quality gaming VP could bring to market, adding value to it’s sicker price for so many…
The author’s complaints refer to things you can’t personalize in a short demo.
FaceTime requires a face scan and then actually having someone to call, they’re not going to have some random Apple employee waiting to be called by demo strangers.
Connecting to a demo MacBook screen isn’t going to impress anyone, it needs to be your MacBook and Apple isn’t going to let people start bringing in their own MacBooks in case they aren’t compatible or there are other issues that sour the experience that they can’t control.
Messaging, social media and other communication aspects obviously rely on the user being logged in to their own accounts, not happening in a demo.
All of the author’s complaints have been addressed ad nauseam in YouTube videos put out since last weekend and continuously being released. I have my own demo scheduled for Tuesday so I’ll see for myself, but as I’ve known for many years, the only way to figure out if a new Apple product fits into your life is to buy it and use it for at least a week or two. Apple’s 14-day return policy accounts for this.