Apple is off to a strong start on the hardware front: 3D top-down view of football, basketball, and sports in Virtual Reality with the Vision Pro
Ultimately, the headset’s software and user interface will be more important than the gadget itself. The Vision Pro is expected to launch next year. But based on a brief look at the device in a hands-on area at Apple Park, Apple’s off to a fairly strong start on the hardware front.
Mark Gurman mentioned in the Power On newsletter that Disney Plus users will be able to use the Vision Pro headset to watch sports in Virtual Reality, a feature that was mentioned in the video. First of all, the regular 2D football game is surrounded by useful information in a box such as score, win probability, and player stat, which is demonstrated in a few ways. Another example involves a 3D top-down view of a basketball game projected onto a coffee table in the user’s lounge, allowing them to see a courtview replay of the match from every angle.
We have seen it, but based on the small amount of information we have, it’s a better looking device than any other such headset we’ve seen. The actual headset itself is quite thin, and most of the device’s heft and size is from the fabricky shield around it and the big, plushy band around the back. The goggles are slightly curved and should wrap around most faces fairly nicely. The whole thing is a nice silvery color, down to the cable coming out the left side and the iPhone-sized battery pack at the bottom that provides its two hours of battery life.
The Vision Pro’s front-facing display was gently pulsing with light, which will be the indication that someone is in the headset but can’t see out; we weren’t able to see the other view, in which the wearer’s eyes are projected through that front screen. That view will either be innovative or horrifying. We’ll see.
The big question, of course, will be how it feels in use. With no overhead band, will it sit too heavily on your nose? Will the cable attached to your left temple, running down to the battery pack, be annoying? Will it get hot after a few minutes? How will it look from the inside? Apple spent a long time talking about how you could use the Vision Pro to replace your television or computer monitor, but doing that well on your face requires a huge amount of processing power and display prowess. Even the Apple displays might not be enough.
The debate is about what is this for. Unlike when the company launched the Apple Watch or even AirPods, there’s not a huge existing market for mixed reality devices; there’s the Meta Quest, a bunch of barely successful prototypes like Microsoft’s HoloLens and the Magic Leap, and not much else. Most people have little or no idea how these headsets work, and little about how they should work seems to have been settled.