Vision Pro Is the Make-or-Break Moment for VR
I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of days now, and I think Vision Pro is the make-or-break moment for VR and AR. Smartphones weren’t mainstream until the iPhone. Smartwatches weren’t mainstream until the Apple Watch.
The market for headsets like the Vision Pro feels like the market for smartphones and watches before Apple entered those markets. There are lots of headsets out there, but they’re really niche. They all suck in different ways and aren’t useful for much. This is the first one that runs what I’d call a “real” OS, by which I mean a headset that runs apps and is useful for things other than games — assuming you don’t get sick from playing them, which many people do.
Like the iPhone and Apple Watch, it will take a few years for the Vision Pro to go mainstream, and like those, people will probably make fun of it for the first couple. My thinking is still that if Apple isn’t going to be the one to do it after some number of years, the mainstream appeal of putting a thing on your face just isn’t there, or at least not until the technology of projecting things into someone’s eyes gets a lot better.