Taobao launches 3D app for Vision Pro headset
Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao, China’s largest online marketplace, has launched a shopping app with 3D functions designed for the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, as mainland consumers await the domestic release of Apple’s latest product.
The app was rolled out last Friday for use on the US$3,499 headset, which Apple released in February in the United States, the only market where the wearable device is currently available. Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said the Vision Pro is expected to be available in China this year.
Some mainland Vision Pro users, who were able to buy the headset in the US, shared their experiences of using Taobao’s new 3D-capable app on Chinese social media, giving positive feedback on the Alibaba e-commerce platform’s updated product display capabilities. Alibaba owns the Post.
The app gives users a sense of what some Taobao merchandise, including consumer electronics, home appliances and furniture, would look like in real life, according to the online feedback.
An app user browsing a DJI drone, for example, sees the device flying with its propellers spinning on the Vision Pro interface. Users can virtually move the drone’s 3D image via hand gestures and check detailed information on every side of the device.
“The light effect of the goods can be adjusted in real time according to the lighting in the room,” Bilibili blogger Zhong Wenze said in a video.
Zhong said there was room for improvement because the measurement of virtual goods on the app was “a little inaccurate” compared with their actual size.
Taobao’s new app is still in the testing stage, according to a report by Sina.com. The final version will be available when Apple officially releases the Vision Pro on the mainland.
The app marks the latest effort by Alibaba to improve users’ experience on its online platforms via augmented- and virtual-reality technologies.
In February, Alibaba’s workplace collaboration platform DingTalk launched a native app for the Vision Pro headset that allows users to send messages and hold video meetings in a 3D virtual environment. Features on the Vision Pro version of DingTalk include options to display multiple windows and draw on the screen using hand gestures.
It was among hundreds of apps and mobile games that became available on Apple’s visionOS App Store when the headset was released in the US on February 2.
Those initiatives follow Alibaba chief executive Eddie Wu Yongming’s pledge last December to sharpen the group’s focus on the “users first” and “artificial intelligence-driven” themes amid increased competition in its industry.
A number of major firms, however, remain on the fence on whether to update their apps for Vision Pro users. Netflix, Spotify and Google have declined to modify their apps specifically for Apple’s headset.
At the US release of the Vision Pro, Walt Disney partnered with Apple to offer Disney+ subscribers thousands of television shows and films for streaming on the mixed-reality headset.
Some mainland merchants have been leasing the Vision Pro to enthusiasts who want to try it out before its official domestic release. Many adverts for such rental deals could be found after the Vision Pro’s US release.