With the launch of the Vision Pro ($3,499 in the US, no UK pricing yet),, with its gestural control, “superior eye tracking” and “infinite desktop“, early on, Apple appears to be targeting the business community more than consumers. The hope and expectation is that the device and platform, with an ecosystem of apps, will be used to improve productivity in areas such as manufacturing, field servicing, collaborative product design and immersive training.
“Leading organizations across many industries such as Walmart, Nike, Vanguard, Stryker, Bloomberg and SAP have started leveraging and investing in Apple Vision Pro as their new platform to bring innovative spatial computing experiences to their customers and employees”
Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
Apple is also hoping that two things in particular will reduce any separation between users and those around them and create new, as-yet-unidentified use cases:
- the “passthrough “ feature that, like Meta’s Qiest 3, allows wearers to see their surroundings via cameras mounted on the headset
- allowing other people to see a user’s eyes through the Vision Pro’s lens
“I think we’re still trying to figure out use cases, especially when it has to do with B2B usage. About 56% use it for training, about 44% for customer facing retail experiences, and 43%-44% for collaboration”
When you have enterprise users coming back and saying that they want to get their hands on it, I think that speaks to Apple’s abilities to court the enterprise user with this device”
IDC analyst Ramon Llamas
Tethering to an external battery has obvious drawbacks, but the feeling is that an integrated device will arrive sooner rather than later. Those who have used the AVP report that it’s a bit heavy and wearing one for an extended period is tiring, but, again, this can only improve. Meanwhile, it’s a time for experimentation rather than mass adoption.
For advice, guidance and support around getting into spatial computing and using devices like the Vision Pro in your organisation, your contacts at Mondatum are Colin Birch (colin@mondatum.com) and John Rowe (john@mondatum.com).
Main image ℅ MacRumors