My VR Journey & Trying the Apple Vision Pro Headset

As one of the few lucky people to try the Apple Vision Pro headset while visiting Apple Park today, in addition to watching the keynote in the Californian sunshine, I wanted to share a few first thoughts.?

My VR journey started with smartphone “slot-in” headsets like Samsung’s Gear VR in 2015 and then I graduated to the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in 2016.

The Rift and Vive required a top-of-the-range PC with an extremely expensive graphics card, but they opened my eyes to the potential for virtual reality. However, despite owning these devices they ended up gathering dust, only to be pulled out from time-to-time when family members and friends who had not tried the technology were visiting. This became a familiar trend regarding the VR headsets that came in and out of my life over the next few years.

That said, at the time, it was immediately apparent to me that it was hot future technology area and CCS Insight started tracking the market in 2015. It has been a tough slog, but these days it feels like the market is coming to us and my colleague Leo Gebbie is now the leading our research in this area with forecasts, consumer research, detailed analysis and visits all of the major industry events around the world (our press release of our latest extended reality forecast available here in case you are interested).

Fast forward to the end of 2022 and my enthusiasm for VR was reignited when I used the Meta Quest Pro. Meta had made a huge step forward and what made the biggest impression was the quality of the experience, the immersive spatial sound, and being able to “wrap the world around me” when entering a virtual meeting with colleagues also using the headset. However, despite being compelling, it was still a struggle to see how it would appeal the mass market.

So here I am, as someone who was openly sceptical whether Apple should even attempt to enter this market, and I’m impressed. Having attended Apple Events in the past, I appreciate that is easy to get wrapped up in the euphoria of the day and I often joke you need to have a couple of cold showers before drawing any conclusions. But in this case, I have a sneaky suspicion that I might look back on today and be able to say “I was there”.?

The reason for this enthusiasm is that the headset is able to offer an experience that is immediately familiar to existing Apple device users. The first thing you see is a screen that does not look a million miles away from what you’d get on an iPad when you turn it on. Vision Pro feels like a logical extension to everything Apple has built over the last decade. This arguably puts Apple in a strong position to define the future direction of what it is referring to as “spatial computing” (not a new term - but interesting Apple is steering well clear of VR or AR as descriptors).?

Like all Apple products, the hardware is sensational, although this should come as little surprise given the $3500 price tag (more on that later). But the usability is also outstanding. The keynote video showed some of the gestures you need to use to navigate, but it is so intuitive that after just a couple of minutes of using the device you almost forget you are tapping your fingers together to select items, move screens around or swipe items around the room.??

And for Apple users, they’ll find all their content ready and waiting, be that photos, TV subscriptions and a host of familiar apps. And there is plenty of the immersive content we’ve seen on other VR headsets including the obligatory dinosaurs getting up close and personal – all be it in the most stunning quality I’ve ever seen given the dual 4K displays.

I’m already seeing people talking about the price, and at ten times more than its Meta rival, $3,500 looks like an eyewatering amount of money. However, Apple has never been afraid to charge a lot for its products. It’s not that long ago that the advent of a $1500 smartphone would have been unthinkable. I won’t be surprised to see people queuing up to buy the product when it starts shipping.

I’ll continue reflecting on my experience and CCS Insight will be writing plenty more in coming days and weeks. Customers can find our first take on the headset here and if you are interested in everything else Apple announced today there is another research note here.

?#VisionPro #AppleHeadset #SpatialComputing #WWDC23 #VirtualReality #AugmentedReality #MixedReality Geoff Blaber , Shaun Collins