The trajectory of my interest in the Apple Vision Pro, and AR/VR headsets in general, closely mirrors the way I got into the iPad. There was a heavy initial skepticism, followed by the smallest amount of interest in learning more about it, and then the “oh, I get how this thing is supposed to be used” moment. The big difference here is that the original iPad ended up being a day-one purchase, whereas the Vision Pro….well….at $3500 we are well out of impulse-buy territory. Much more research was required.

As an initial step into this space, I picked up the Meta Quest 3 a couple of months ago, so I’ll be making some comparisons to it in this piece. I understand that even though the technology at play here is largely the same, both companies have taken different approaches to what they think the market wants from an VR/AR headset.

Initial Thoughts

Even for tech nerds and/or Apple enthusiasts, the Vision Pro is a hard sell when it costs as much as a down payment for a car. So why did I buy it?

Spatial Computing.

It took a while for this idea to really sink in and click. Once it did, I instantly understood the direction Apple and others were trying to go. The idea of computing unbounded from a display is actually quite appealing.

I’m a post-pc guy. I’m looking for experiences and ways of doing things that move us beyond the traditional mouse/keyboard interface. I continue to believe that there’s a better and easier way for people to use computers and be productive. There are too many smart people in this field for us to be stuck with this paradigm from the 1970s.

After about two weeks of using the Vision Pro, I’ve concluded that it is the perfect couch computer. And I don’t mean that derogatorily, like some people do for the iPad. My favorite place to use this device is on the couch in my living room, with or without a keyboard and mouse, with a number of windows open, spread around me. Like a lazier version of Minority Report.

The most productive use I currently have for the Vision Pro is writing. The tools I’ve been using are a TestFlight version of Ulysses (which looks like it’s removing visionOS support 😔) and/or an app called Runestone, which is more of a plain text editor geared towards code. Final edits happen on WordPress in the browser.

Speaking of the browser, much like on iPadOS, Safari ends up being a great stand-in for apps that aren’t available on the platform or are of poor quality. If I wanted to just use the WordPress website for writing, I could (with just a little bit of jank).

My experience has also benefited heavily from relying on Apple apps and services. I use the Reminders and Calendar apps for planning my content. I use Numbers for managing my finances. I use the Apple TV app for aggregating content. I use Apple Notes as a data dump. Even though many of these apps are their iPad versions,the iPad versions are pretty good. It’s interesting to me how far you can get as a developer with a good iPadOS app. You get the foundation of a good Mac app via Mac Catalyst, and you get a solid VisionOS app in compatibility mode.

The biggest benefit the Vision Pro has had for me over the Meta Quest 3 is that all of my data and many of my apps exist on this platform. Safari is here with both my password manager (1Password) and more importantly, my extensions, i.e. ad-blockers. I quickly forget how awful browsing the web is without an ad blocker. My messaging app is here, my notes are here. Many of the tools I need to be productive are here.

The Quest, as a gaming console, doesn’t have any of these unless I go to the trouble of sideloading Android apps (which I do plan on trying at some point). Obviously, the Quest excels as a gaming machine. I don’t think there’s any question that this is an area where the Vision Pro currently lacks. I do believe Apple will one day add support for AR/VR controllers, but it’ll be some time.

Apple wants to ensure that the fundamental input methods of the platform, eye tracking and gestures , are well established first. I also consider the fact that you don’t “need” controllers to be a selling point over the Quest 3, although Meta is making progress with its hand tracking.

It’s an approach that can be seen as one of the (few?) upsides of Apple’s single App Store approach. On the iPad, I like that I can buy an app and know that it’ll work with touch, even if it also supports keyboard and mouse. I don’t have to buy another accessory to use it; I can do everything I need to with my hands. Vision Pro should be the same way. And if I want to buy an additional accessory to enhance my experience, that’s fine. But I shouldn’t feel compelled to in the same way a keyboard and mouse are essentially a necessity with a Surface Pro.

Wait, Why Is The Vision Pro Dead?

When it comes to sales comparisons, Apple is a “victim” of the success of the iPhone. The iPhone has sold in incredible numbers since the iPhone 3G, and has become the yardstick against which the success of all other Apple products is judged. It’s been years since Apple has divulged sales numbers for its products, so we as observers have to use analyst reports and anecdotal data to gauge how well a product is being received by the market. These methods tell us that the Vision Pro isn’t selling particularly well compared to…..something (the Meta Quest?). This has caused many to declare it a ‘flop’, or more often, ‘dead’.

With a $3500 starting price, I don’t doubt that units aren’t flying off the shelves at Apple Stores. I also don’t think Apple is particularly surprised or worried about this. You can call Apple lots of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. You don’t release a computer for $3500 and expect it to sell iPhone numbers. You just don’t. There were reports a year ago about Sony, beloved to be the sole manufacturer of the lenses in the Vision Pro, only being able to make around 400,000 pairs of lenses per year. If true, that means that Vision Pro sales would, in the absolute best case, be bound by the number of units that could be produced in a year.

Apple sells tens of millions of iPhones every quarter, so if you’re comparing the Vision Pro to the iPhone, yeah, it’s going to look like a flop.

Observers also forget that the Apple Watch, now considered to be one of, if not the, best-selling smartwatches, was also said to not be selling well when the first version came out. That was because it was being compared against iPhone numbers.

Many Apple products don’t sell particularly well in their first year. The iPhone didn’t really take off until the iPhone 3G, for example. The point is, just because a product doesn’t sell as well as you think it should initially, doesn’t mean that the product line is dead. Platforms need time to grow.

“There’s Nothing To Do On The Vision Pro”

At the time I’m writing this, it’s been eight months since the Vision Pro was released in the US. The general consensus from early adopters is that there’s not enough to do with the headset to justify putting it on every day. Others say that immersive video/media consumption is the only reason they occasionally use it. I considered both of these sentiments when considering whether or not I wanted to spend this much money on a first-generation product.

But there was never a question of what I’d do with this thing. Not to me.

I use it like a computer.

Maybe this is easier for me because I’ve learned how to get things done on iPadOS, but I’m not really looking for some highly specific purpose for the Vision Pro. I mean, the entire experience is pretty unique in and of itself. But there was no question to me that I would use this like a general-purpose computer. Specifically, a desktop computer. But slightly more portable.

I’ve spoken a few times about my vision, for lack of a better term, for the direction I hope augmented reality computers go. I see something like the Vision Pro or Quest 3 as your more powerful computer for heavy-duty tasks. They probably don’t change much in form factor from what they are today, but continue to pack in more and more powerful chips. This device likely doesn’t leave the house very often, if at all. Consider this an iMac or Mac Mini replacement.

The Apple Vision (glasses) or Meta glasses would be your portable AR computer that you either wear all the time or come with you everywhere. It’s a lightweight machine optimized for tasks you’d use your laptop for. It’s likely paired with a tablet, phone, or watch for most of the processing power, while the glasses themselves remain as lightweight as possible. Think of this setup replacing a laptop. I am quite curious how both Meta and Apple will make this approach work, because this was exactly what Apple did with the first generation Apple Watch, and it was a slow and frankly terrible experience.

Plenty Of Room For Improvement

As a first-generation product, the Vision Pro has lots of room for improvement and growth. Some of these are the same issues you’ve heard everywhere else. While I don’t find it oppressively heavy, the headset is certainly on the heavier end of what you’d want to wear. I’ve been using the Solo Knit Band almost the entire time I’ve been using the Vision Pro, and generally I just loosen the strap a bit when I start to feel uncomfortable. I used the fact that apparently people think the AirPods Max are heavy as a good sign I’d be okay with the weight of the Vision Pro. I’ve never thought the AirPods Max were the least bit heavy or uncomfortable.

The battery is a much bigger issue. Obviously, Apple couldn’t build the battery into the headset without breaking people’s necks. Having an external wired battery is pretty inconvenient in many ways. The cable gets tangled and in the way. If I try to get up, it often falls to the floor. Battery life also isn’t great, but it’s pretty similar to the Quest 3, so that’s not really specific to the Vision Pro, and more a limitation of the current technology.

Speaking of technology limitations, there’s an obnoxious amount of motion blur when you move your head. This doesn’t happen on the Quest 3, but that headset has lower-resolution LCD displays, so maybe that’s a tradeoff of the OLED panels Vision Pro uses.

Eye tracking as a core interaction method is pretty cool, and the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. But it isn’t 100% either on the software side or on my end. It takes a long time to get used to looking at what you want to interact with. You’d be surprised how often you look away from something while you’re trying to tap or click it.

I often find the system has trouble distinguishing between a tap and a tap-and-hold, and often things I’m trying to drag something when I’m really trying to select it.

I expect software issues to get ironed out over time, but the fact that VisionOS sometimes feels buggy seems like more fuel for the idea that Apple’s software teams are stretched too thin or not being given enough time before products ship.

Conclusion

As I write this, I’m at the end of my two-week return period, and I do not plan on returning the device. I’m the type of person that does a fair amount of research before I buy an expensive device, and I make sure I have a use for it. So for me, this time with the Vision Pro was less experimental and more “make sure it’s not too heavy”. I will continue to use this as a home computer. Does this mean it overlaps with other devices? Yeah, but I don’t worry too much about that as long as I have access to my data across the machines I’m using.

“Won’t the Vision Pro cut into how much you use your iPad?”

Sort of. At home, yes, I would anticipate some of the time I use my iPad Pro will be taken by the Vision Pro, but there are a number of things to consider.

1. There’s no version of Final Cut for visionOS, not even the iPadOS version. So I can’t really edit videos on this machine. Quite frankly, I’m not sure this is the right machine for that task anyway. I’m told LumaFusion is available in its iPadOS version, so I do intend to give that a shot at some point, so stay tuned!
   
2. One of the things I love about AR headsets is that they are incredibly personal, very much single-user machines. But sometimes I want to be more present with others while I’m working or casually browsing. The iPad is a much better computer in that scenario.
   
3. This thing will probably never leave the house, and if I did, I’m nowhere near confident enough to wear it in public. The iPad Pro will continue to be my primary mobile and personal/side hustle computer.

Enthusiasts (should) know what they are getting into, but this product is not quite ready for normal people yet, and likely won’t be until we get to AR glasses. Even then, we probably have a few generations of iteration before they’re really ready for prime time. Keep these things in mind when you see someone writing off the Vision Pro as dead. Because it’s very much just getting started. And I look forward to seeing where both Apple and Meta end up with Spatial Computing.