For all its impressive technical qualities, Apple Vision Pro, all singing and dancing hasn’t set the world on fire. But it’s still early days, and the company is still putting some weight behind the headset, reportedly planning to add AI features to VisionOS and preparing an updated approach to in-store demos.
The company is adding a new “Go Deeper” option to its in-store demos, Gurman wrote. That would include testing desktop features and watching videos, as well as defaulting to the Dual Loop band that sends straps over the top and around the back of users’ heads instead of the single-strap Solo Loop band, which some find uncomfortable.
Apple is also reportedly going to let users view their own videos and photos, including panoramas, in the headset. Adding a sentimental touch to the demos could work, especially once VisionOS 2 coming out this falll, with its “spatialize” option to turn 2D photos into 3D photos — a feature that’s more impressive than it has any right to be (although it still looks a little weird with the hair and glasses, like Apple’s Portrait Mode feature).
But I can imagine things going the other way if people end up looking at the wrong pictures. You know how looking at your iPhone photos on your computer screen suddenly reveals all their flaws? Try looking at them when they’re the size of a wall.
But it really seems like this is all just triage while we wait for the company to release a cheaper headset, which is expected to happen late next year. It’s not yet clear what this will look like, given the conflicting rumors currently circulating, such as that it’s a cheaper headset. go with low resolution screens for follow-up or that it actually aims to maintain high resolution screens but stopped working on the Vision Pro 2 (or not).
The common thread in all these stories, however, is that Apple is having a lot of trouble making the headset it wants to make without costing a penny. hojillion dollars. It’s too early to declare the Vision Pro a dead end, but I can’t shake the feeling that without this cheaper headset, Apple has no path forward unless it agrees to let the Vision Pro serve a niche market while it pursues this dream of lightweight AR glasses.
