FINAL THOUGHTS
Today marked the end of my first experience with Apple Vision Pro. It is all boxed up for return in the morning. Now that the experiment is complete, I wanted to share a few overarching thoughts on my experience:
• There's something GREAT here. Not for TOMORROW. For TODAY. From movie fanatics in the market for a high-end tv, to Creatives and Business People looking to work publicly while maintaining privacy, there are going to be people who keep the device, and get a ton of joy and benefit from it in the months ahead. I went in with ZERO interest in anything AR/VR. I left completely sold on this being an exciting future for computing, even if it wasn't the right price point for me to jump in just yet.
• Everyone Should be Recording in Spatial with your iPhones. Even Without Vision Pro. I'm not even sure why Apple even gives you the option. Even if you don't own a Vision Pro today, you'll likely own a future iteration, even if it's years from now. And when you do, you'll wish you had been recording every sentimental moment in Spatial Video, not 2D. It's POWERFUL.
• Apple 100% Did the Right Thign Getting Vision Pro to Market. Steve Jobs famously said "Real Artists Ship." Kudos to Tim and the team at Apple for getting this device shipped. The amount of data and feedback they're about to get on this device and how to make it better is going to truly be revolutionary. That word gets thrown around inappropriately a lot these days, but in this case, it's the perfect word. The people who keep their devices will help shape it's future. And the best part is, there are a ton of changes that can and will happen at the OS/app level... changes that could start happening this calendar year. I'm thrilled to follow the development of the OS in the months ahead. This is going to be exciting!
• Window Management is Lacking. What good is "infinite workspace" if there's no way to consistently, conveniently organize it? I would love to see a dock of your open apps that appears when you look down, much in the way control center opens when you look up (and before you go complaining about control center popping up when you don't want it to, make sure you've adjusted it higher in the System Settings... makes a huge difference!) I would also love to see a Mission Control-esque feature controlled by a gesture, and the ability to save presets of windows/workspaces.
• The only thing more curious than the Travel Case Design is the Travel Case Packaging. I'm still a bit baffled by the size and material choices for the Vision Pro Travel Case. But if there's any one indication of how "rushed to market" this launch may have been, it's the travel case packaging. It came in a single piece of folded, unmarked, unbranded piece of white cardboard... like a chinese takeout box but flimsier. It's the single most un-Apple design decision I can recall in 24 years of using Apple products.
• 256 GB is Plenty... for Now. I bought the 512 GB model and regretted it almost instantly. Until better file management and more cloud options (only Files and Box available at launch - no sign of Dropbox), you're just not likely to be storing much more than a few movies and some apps. That said, Apps, OS, and System Files took up nearly 200GB of my AVP storage space. Not sure what that was going to, as I did not install a ton of Apps... surprising.
• The Battery Life is Plenty... for Now. I thought the battery would be a dealbreaker for me. While I wasn't THRILLED about having it hanging off the device all the time, I wasn't BOTHERED by it in practice. The battery life (typically around 3 hours for my use) was longer than I ever wanted to use the Vision Pro in a single setting, making Apple's solution more than adequate.
• Consider the Cost: you're not looking at a $3500 purchase. Most people are looking at somewhere between a $4200 and $5000 dollar investment. At $5000 you're moving in to a higher end MacBook Pro. Could you get more value from a $5000 MacBook Pro than $5000 Vision Pro right now? For many people the answer will be yes (but I can guarantee those people won't have NEARLY as much fun 🤣)
• The Perfect Fit Takes Practice. My level of comfort wearing the Vision Pro on Day 1 compared to my level of comfort on Day 13 were RADICALLY different. There's an art and a science to getting a fit that is comfortable for longer viewing sessions. The more you use it, the more you'll find your sweet spot.
• Immersive Movies > 3D Movies. if Apple can figure out how to take Immersive Movies mainstream, it might be hard to ever go back. Will we get there? Hard to imagine, but time will tell.
• Lack of Phone Integration is a Glaring Hole. When your entire company's past 2 decades are built on a singular device like the iPhone, it seems unfathomable to completely cut out phone call integration in your next gen device. But that's exactly what's happened with Apple Vision Pro.
• The More you use Siri in your Daily Life, the More at Home You'll Feel on Vision Pro. Even simple things like sending text messages are crazy fast on Vision Pro when you use the speech to text feature. The Apple Smart Home crowd is well primed for a seamless transition.
• "Ready Player One" is Closer Than We Think. Watching that movie, I never understood why people would prefer a virtual world. 2 Weeks in to Apple Vision Pro, and people are raving about the movie watching experience, and so many are already saying "I just wish I could see a friend in another state sitting there next to me in the virtual theater while she watches from her Apple Vision Pro." This device is already generating a demand for social connectivity inside immersive environments. What a trippy future we have ahead of us!
• Health Concerns Exist... but so do Health Benefits. No one knows the longterm health impact on our eyes and minds from these devices, something that every prospective Vision Pro owner should certainly consider before making the purchase. But it's at least worth pointing out that from laptops to phones to tables, computing devices have historically worsened our posture. The Vision Pro may be the first computing device that actually
strengthens our posture. This is a benefit I think Apple could lean into even more, possibly providing posture check alerts in future OS updates.
• Ethical Concerns Also Exist. When the iPhone came out in 2007, no one anticipated the unintended consequence of families out to dinner with kids glued to screens instead of engaged in conversation with their family. When AirPods came out in 2016, no one could have ever guessed that one of the unintended consequences of their release would be workers in fast food joints, grocery stores, coffee shops, and more all "tuning out" from customers to "tune in" to their music on the job. For some people, this is a non-issue. For others, it's maddening. Likewise, there will be unintended consequences that come from the Vision Pro's establishment in society, some of which raise far more grave ethical questions than listening to music at work. Are we approaching a day where it's commonplace to be sitting next to someone on a plane who is watching pornography? Will some people point to horror stories of sights and sounds of people "reacting" without realizing it, while others argue "what's it matter? you can't see what they're looking at anyway?" This is just one example of the potential unintended ethical consequences. As a less intense example, we're already seeing strong evidence of
Gen Z's inability to speak to people by phone, and it's impact in the workplace... could mass adoption of Spatial Computing devices like Vision Pro lead to a future where the next generation struggles to even look people in the eye in real life? I think it's important to remember that, while WE may view these devices through the lens of how they BUILD on to a paradigm and worldview that we've been establishing for ourselves for years, for future generations they ARE the paradigm. They ARE the lens through which they view the world. Nefarious use cases don't mean we should stop innovating and creating, but they SHOULD compel us to consider their implications as we integrate new technologies into our daily lives.
THE VERDICT:
I'm returning my Apple Vision Pro (and I'll be back to share about that experience tomorrow), but it's on my radar to pick up a refurbished model when the price is right. What's here in V1 is GREAT. I look forward to picking it back up in the near future and integrating it in to my daily rhythms and workflow.
