Vision Pro: Is this a rare Apple flop?
A month into trying it, my $3,500 Apple Vision Pro is gathering “more dust than our wedding-gift fondue set,” said Joanna Stern in The Wall Street Journal. “The times I most look forward to using it are when I want to escape my home, my plane seat—or my phone.” It was cool to use on my train commute, where I was able to write “on a large futuristic monitor virtually mounted inside a train car.” But it also requires that I “lug my laptop and the headset and its big travel case in my backpack.” Between the laptop, the headset, and the big battery pack, it feels like I’m juggling an Apple Store in my seat. No wonder most days my headset goes unused.
At times, the headset can feel like “true sci-fi magic,” said Mike Andronico in CNN.com. “All my usual apps are floating in front of me, where I can effortlessly flick them around my office like I’m Tony Stark—and see a whole lot more at once than I can on my monitor.” But too often, I found the software to be glitchy or uncooperative. That’s typical of “any first-generation product.” Another drawback? It’s heavy! After several days of wearing it, I now “feel a pretty significant strain on my neck after just a few minutes.” Apple will probably smooth all that out, said Michael deAgonia in Computerworld. When it does, I can imagine the Vision Pro as an incredible office companion. “Because the entire computer is strapped to your face, privacy is unmatched.” It’s also “useful in situations where you need a computer while also using your hands to interact with tools.” Think of a surgeon who wants to “see an overlay of a CT scan or MRI directly on a patient during a procedure.”
Maybe, but for ordinary people headsets aren’t replacing the laptop, said Shira Ovide in The Washington Post. It’s not healthy to strap an immersive screen to your face for hours at a time, which can produce “sensory distortions” as well as break social connections. And as cool as it’s looked to see “people wearing the Vision Pro as they walk through a mall” or even “drive a car,” please, don’t do any of this either. Clearly, Apple needs to fill its “what’s next” void with something else, said Dave Lee in Bloomberg. Its legacy businesses are facing “urgent threats,” like the plummeting demand for iPhones in China. At the same time, it is “falling short on expectations of growth through innovation.” The Vision Pro, so far, doesn’t seem like the answer. What about the Apple Car? Oh wait—Apple canceled that project.