Apple Vision Pro: a step in the meta direction

Apple is well known for its headline-grabbing events, and WDC 23 is no exception with the Apple Vision Pro jumping right to the foreground. But is this just another VR headset?

Truly game-changing technology comes along just once or twice in a generation. Graphical User Interfaces utterly revolutionised human-machine interaction. The ubiquity of Windows and MacOS thrust computing into our homes. And Apple up-ended the market when it introduced the iPhone back in 2007. It was groundbreaking stuff.

Head-mounted displays (HMD), on the other hand, have never really managed to grasp — and keep — public attention. And they still might not. Yet.

The Apple Vision Pro is a step in the right direction. It’s an HMD that lets you see the world around you and allows people in that world to see your eyes. When you want them to. Which is great. Except there’s still a physical barrier in place — a tether (literally in the case of the battery pack) that separates the wearer from the world itself.

What can’t be denied is the potential of what Apple bills as its first-ever spatial computing device. In the launch film, we learned how users will be immersed in memories, the capability of setting up a workspace literally anywhere, and no handheld controls to speak of (unless you want them). The Vision Pro looks comfortable and offers an unparalleled user experience, but it still resembles something of a SCUBA mask. And yet, there’s incredible promise here.

The internet, but 3D

That promise lies in the metaverse — the internet made 3D. It’s a concept that’s taken a headline backseat since the AI revolution began, but we can expect more noise in the near future. Devices like the Apple Vision Pro will open up a whole new way of living. If (or when) these tools are paired with cloud computing we’ll see a truly decentralised world where we can work and live practically anywhere, interacting with people and technology simultaneously.

Yes, there are some barriers to overcome. Let’s not forget that the Apple Vision Pro is a generation one device. Its successors will no doubt build on this foundation and get smaller, sleeker, and offer better battery life. And with the marketing budget that Apple has clearly thrown behind the launch, it’s sure to have great commercial success.

However, this isn’t a consumer product. Despite the friendly packing and glorious Apple branding (fanboy), everyday users aren’t going to need the Vision Pro. They might want it, but that’s another matter. We’ll see businesses and power users picking up the chunky price tag and beginning their move to the next generation of human-machine interaction.

From architects and engineers to software developers, bankers, gamers, and artists there’s enormous scope for use cases. Particularly when you consider NFTs.

That’s where I can see this going. A first step to interacting with the metaverse in the way that it was meant to be: the next generation of the internet and a truly connected, technology-driven era.