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Jul 31, 2023

Apple Unveils $3,500 Vision Pro Headset: Will It Finally Push Virtual Reality Into the Mainstream — or Is It a Pricey Toy?

Apple took the wraps off Vision Pro, an expensive pair of goggles the company

Apple took the wraps off Vision Pro, an expensive pair of goggles the company promises will unlock a new universe of magical new virtual- and augmented-reality apps.

The headset will be priced starting at $3,499, available starting in early 2024 in the U.S. (with other countries later in the year). Apple announced the years-in-development headset Monday at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

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"I believe that augmented reality is a profound technology," said CEO Tim Cook, saying that Apple's introduction of Vision Pro will introduce people to new forms of "spatial computing" and comparing the product introduction to the way iPhone introduced smartphones to millions of people.

"Built upon decades of Apple innovation, Vision Pro is years ahead and unlike anything created before — with a revolutionary new input system and thousands of groundbreaking innovations," Cook said. "It unlocks incredible experiences for our users and exciting new opportunities for our developers."

Disney CEO Bob Iger made an appearance during Apple's Vision Pro launch, saying the "revolutionary" platform will let the company create "deeply immersive" stories in ways that were "previously impossible." Disney's sizzle reel for Vision Pro showed various concepts the media company is working on for the device, "to bring you real-life magic," Iger said. Disney+ will be available on Vision Pro on "day one," he added.

Apple's Vision Pro uses eye movements and hand movements for navigation — with no external controllers — and also employs voice input. (Individual app developers, however, cannot access a user's exact eye location or other personal info.) Vision Pro uses a feature Apple calls EyeSight that shows other people a wearer's eyes if they’re in augmented-reality mode to help "users stay connected with those around them"; the screen turns opaque to the outside world if the wearer is in fully immersive VR mode. The headset also includes Apple's first 3D camera, for capturing spatial video and photos, and can serve as a "personal movie theater" with a screen "that feels 100 feet wide" with support for Apple TV+, Apple Arcade games (more than 100 titles at launch) and other Apple services.

Vision Pro provides ultra high resolution, with more pixels for each eye than a 4K TV — with 23 million pixels across two displays — and provides a newly designed spatial-audio system, according to Apple. Vision Pro will change "the way users interact with their favorite apps, capture and relive memories, enjoy stunning TV shows and movies, and connect with others in FaceTime," the company said.

For all of Apple's razzle-dazzle, there remains the question of whether the long-awaited VR headset can finally help establish virtual reality as a popular mainstream technology — or whether, despite the heft of Apple's investment and stellar global brand, this is essentially a high-priced tech toy.

The tech giant's VR and mixed-reality headset reportedly has been in development for seven years, and marks the first new product category entry for Apple since it launched Apple Watch in 2015. The company has projected selling 900,000 VR headsets in the first year, Bloomberg reported last month.

The VR headset runs visionOS, an operating system Apple said was "designed from the ground up to support the low-latency requirements of spatial computing." Apple said it gave some developers access to Vision Pro to create apps for the headset, including Microsoft's Word and Excel and the Sky Guide planetarium app. At launch, Vision Pro will support hundreds of thousands of existing iPhone and iPad apps; in addition, Apple's Vision Pro supports the Unity game engine to bring 3D apps developed using Unity to the platform.

The Vision Pro has a singular piece of 3D-formed laminated glass, which acts as an optical surface for the cameras and sensors. That is connected to an aluminum alloy frame that "gently curves to wrap around your face while serving as an attachment point for the Light Seal," the section of fabric that touches the wearer's face. All told, it includes 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones "to ensure that content feels like it is appearing right in front of the user's eyes, in real time," according to Apple. The device's new R1 chip processes and plays images within 12 milliseconds — eight times faster than the blink of an eye, per the company. Apple Vision Pro provides up to two hours of continuous use with its built-in battery.

Just days prior to Apple's VR announcement, Meta announced the next generation of its own VR headset, the Meta Quest 3, priced at $500 and slated to ship in the fall of 2023.

To date, VR has mostly gained traction in the gaming space. In 2022, VR and AR headset unit sales sank 21%, falling from 11.2 million to 8.8 million units, according to market research firm IDC, with Meta's Quest holding roughly 80% market share. IDC cited the "limited number of vendors in the market, a challenging macro-economic environment and a lack of mass market adoption from consumers" for the year-over-year drop.

Other announcements during the 2023 WWDC keynote presentation:

iOS 17, the next generation of its iPhone operating system (beta in July; available fall 2023). New in iOS 17: updated apps for phone (with personalized contact posters, "live voicemail" that provides a real-time transcription), FaceTime (adding the ability to leave a message) and messages (which adds search filters, automated check-in notices, and "live stickers" from a user's photos). It includes a new Journal app that prompts you to write personal entries, which can include photos, music and videos, and a feature called StandBy, which displays the time and other info when you place an iPhone on its side. In addition, Apple says autocorrect in iOS 17 is more accurate and personalized and includes sentence-level autocorrection.

tvOS 17 (available fall 2023), which adds support for FaceTime and the ability to locate your Apple TV remote with an iPhone and features a redesigned control center.

iPadOS 17 (available fall 2023), featuring interactive widgets on the home screen, new personalized lock-screen options and a version of the Health app designed for iPad.

MacOS Sonoma (available fall 2023), an upgrade for Apple's Macs, with interactive widgets and the ability to move widgets anywhere on the screen; "game mode," which lets you give resource priority to gaming apps; new videoconferencing effects; enhanced private browsing and the ability to set up multiple profiles in Safari; and new screensavers. Game designer Hideo Kojima made an appearance to announce that "Death Stranding Director's Cut" will be coming to Mac later this year (and that his company is working to bring additional titles to Apple platforms).

A new lineup of Macs including a MacBook Air laptop with a larger 15.3-inch screen (starting at $1,299); and Mac Studio (from $1,999) and Mac Pro (from $6,999) desktops with Apple's new M2 Ultra high-performance microprocessor.

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