Why buyers would love a wired Apple Vision Pro

Apple’s Vision Pro is due to launch outside the US soon, but it’s already a bit of a flop. Maybe it’s time to think of it as an iPad and Mac accessory rather than marketing it as an entirely new computing platform.

The end product of the Vision Pro is a pair of glasses that give you ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) 24/7. But the current Vision Pro is far from that. It’s bulky, requires a cable, and is far too expensive for most people. Until it’s possible to make them cheap and small enough to appeal to regular people, Apple could make an AVP that plugs into your Mac or iPad. Without a computer and cooling, it could be much lighter, it could be cheaper, and since it already requires a cable to the battery, it would make little difference.

“Nobody likes wearing uncomfortable, bulky headgear. The weight of the headsets and the disorientation caused by VR have always been the biggest barriers to end-user adoption. For wider adoption, headsets need to be much lighter and easier to use,” Oindrila Mandal, senior game product manager at Electronic Arts, told Lifewire via email. “To make AR mainstream, companies like Apple should focus on the usability and intuitiveness of the product, rather than its technological capabilities. Consumers know the technology is cool. But even diehard AR/VR fans who buy these products can’t use the headsets for long periods of time. Focusing on the user experience would make AR more ubiquitous.”

Virtual flop

Just before Apple’s global launch of its augmented reality headset, early adopters are publishing their long-term opinions and they are not good: The Vision Pro is uncomfortable, it doesn’t have enough apps, the battery life is abysmal and many buyers of the $3,500+ headset barely use it and only watch the occasional movie because they feel obligated to turn it on after spending so much money. “Right now, I feel like the Vision Pro was the worst way I could have spent $3,500 on improving my computing life,” writes UI designer Matt Birchler on his blog.

It seems Apple is just as disappointed with its new, bold spatial computing platform. Since launch, there have been few new 3D experiences, also known as immersive movies, and Apple hasn’t even bothered to hold a launch event. Months after the initial announcement, the company simply dropped the AVP in the store with a press release.

If it seems like the project is on hold, that’s because it kind of is. Apple has reportedly abandoned plans for a successor to the Vision Pro and is instead working on a cheaper model that keeps the amazing dual displays but omits many other parts to make it smaller, lighter, and more affordable.

But would you buy a Vision Pro even if it cost $1,000? Or less? Right now, it doesn’t offer enough to make it worth buying. Big software developers like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify have held off so far, and until a lot more people buy it, it’s unlikely that will change.

Apple is great at constantly improving its designs. Just look at the difference between the original iPhone and today’s model, which came out step by step with incremental annual updates. But if a product doesn’t do well from the start, Apple can lose interest and let the product wither away, like the HomePod and Touch Bar.

Unlike the Touch Bar and HomePod, which were fully developed from the start and just needed some attention, the Vision Pro needs a lot of work and numerous annual updates to transform itself from a clunky, uncomfortable headset into a usable mainstream AR headset.

Connected

One way to keep the AVP alive and improve it at the same time would be to stop selling it as an all-in-one computer and start selling it as an accessory to the computer you already have. The Apple Vision could plug into your Mac or iPad and act as a fancy display and input device. You already have to make do with a battery cable, so hooking it up with a Thunderbolt cable wouldn’t be any worse, and it’s not like anyone uses those things anyway.

You could then use it as a virtual display for your Mac, play VR games (which is all you really want from these things anyway) and watch movies. Apple could make it smaller and cheaper, and thus attractive enough to make it a success.

“Standalone is extremely important in the bigger picture, but for many use cases in both the corporate and consumer space, even a wired headset should be a very attractive proposition in the Apple ecosystem – especially in the context of extended and multiplied screens, entertainment consumption and artistic work,” Maeva Sponbergs, CMO and head of publishing at Beyond Frames Entertainment, told Lifewire via email.

What is certain is that Apple needs to do something. Right now, the AVP is a novel device that costs more than an iPad, iPhone and Mac combined, and the international launch has the added disadvantage of making potential buyers aware of its long-term flaws. Unless Apple changes something, the AVP is more of a Touch Bar than an iPhone.