Apple’s gen1 Vision Pro Winding Down?
Maybe, but Spatial Computing Still a Thing
News comes that Apple’s leadership is reportedly cutting production on the gen1 Vision Pro ostensibly because $3,500 was too much for something that left a lot of early users wondering what, exactly, they were going to do with them. Immersive content experiences were great, according to early reviews of early adopters. I guess there just wasn’t enough immersive content and games. And let’s face it, a lot of consumers expectations for the device’s utility were based on a crop of new applications hitting the market quickly.
That said, we would be very wrong to think that the reported decision meant we’d never again have to talk about VR/AR headsets or Spatial Computing. At its February 2024 introduction, Apple noted it had filed thousands of patents (as many as 5,000, according to reports, many of which have been granted) for capabilities such as head- and eye-tracking, gesture recognition and immersive audio. With that depth and breadth of IP, assume that many are going to find their way into the company’s existing hardware and software solutions.
In the meantime, most reporting indicates Apple’s working on a lower-cost version of the Vision Pro which makes sense. The headset was always a starting point for Apple – not simply an attempt to catch up with all the other wildly successful mixed-reality/AR/VR/immersive experience headsets. What matters is Apple isn’t walking away from the concept of spatial computing.
And the adaptation of some of the Vision Pro’s technologies into products like the iPhone are likely to accelerate the linkage smart devices and emerging smart environments.
On a Related Note . . .
The news of gen1 Vision Pro’s early retirement came in roughly the same timeframe that Apple indicated in October that there would be a staggered release of Apple Intelligence-based features. (Apple Intelligence is the company’s branding for its implementation of AI – a naming convention that likely started fraught discussions among the world’s copy editors responsible for style guides.) When Apple announced Apple Intelligence at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June it noted that many of the capabilities would be available with the new iPhone 16 running iOS 18. Turns out some of the features of Apple Intelligence are available in 18.1 with more features available with the upcoming version, 18.2. (Nice story encapsulating 18.1 features and those likely in 18.2 here.)
Is this another indication that Apple’s perceived late start in the sweepstakes for AI dominance means it’s never going to catch up? Apple’s AI strategy feels more like a calculated glide than a sprint to market dominance.
That’s because OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Adobe, Salesforce et al aren’t in the same race as Apple. Those companies are focused on scaling to match enterprise customers’ needs and expectations with some consumer demand here and there. Apple’s focus is Mac, iOS, tvOS and, ultimately visionOS customers, some of which happen to be in enterprises. There’s a lot of brand equity Apple’s built up over the years based a great deal on exceeding customer expectations for any given product. Hence, the gen1 Vision Pro’s short shelf life but the knowledge that some of its enabling technologies are going extend the value of its existing suite of hardware.
In the Ars Technica article I linked to, the author notes the evolution-to-value of AI platforms like OpenAI and Perplexity in comparison to Apple’s more cautious approach.
In the end, making some tweaks to Apple Intelligence features and retiring gen1 of the Vision Pro strike me as important and separate strategic decisions that stem from the desire (and need) to maintain and grow the equity of the brand promise they’ve established with Apple customers.