Apple’s Vision Pro could revolutionize content consumption and computer work

Apple’s Vision Pro could change the way people watch TV at home and the way they use computers at work, potentially making the headset a successor to both the traditional TV and the Mac.

The $3,500 headset, which connects 3D digital content to the outside world, hit the company’s brick-and-mortar stores in the United States on Friday. It enters a market full of cheaper competitors from Meta Platforms, HTC and others that are mostly confined to the video game market and haven’t found a mass audience.

Apple has had mixed results with developers. Netflix, one of the most popular consumer video apps, announced late Friday that it will not be making a new app for the Vision Pro, although consumers can watch movies and series using the device’s web browser.

YouTube, which could not immediately be reached for comment, said in a Bloomberg report that it does not plan to release a new app for the device, but that consumers can use the Safari browser instead. According to a person familiar with the matter, the music streaming service Spotify has also not developed an application for the launch of the product.

The expensive device comes with custom computing circuits and hard-to-manufacture displays that competitors lack. Analysts who have tried the headset say these features could make the device a threat to almost any large two-dimensional display at home or at work.

Walt Disney has been quietly working with Apple for years on an app to launch Vision Pro, the latest collaboration between the two companies.

“When we saw this, it became clear that it was a new ground for how we could tell stories in a way that hadn’t been done before,” said Aaron LaBerge, Disney Entertainment’s chief technology officer. “And so it became pretty clear that we wanted to do something here just to stretch ourselves.”

Walt Disney Studios chief technology officer Jamie Voris said filmmakers such as “The Lion King” director Jon Favreau and “Avatar”‘s James Cameron are interested in telling stories in new ways. Disney will soon introduce the experience, which it teased at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference last June in a clip showing consumers interacting with its Marvel Studios animated series “What If?” with.

The device also opens up new ways to experience live sporting events or theme park rides, LaBerge said.

“It really speaks to what we do best, which is bringing our characters and stories into the real world and bringing you closer to the people you care about,” Voris said.

It’s not clear that a mixed-reality device was what the late Apple founder Steve Jobs had in mind when he confided to biographer Walter Isaacson that while developing the next generation of television, “I finally cracked it.” But to analysts like Creative Strategies’ Ben Bajarin, Vision Pro appeared to be fulfilling a long-ago promise.

“I don’t know if this is what Jobs meant when he said ‘I sacked TV,'” Bajarin said. a bigger opportunity than if it was just television.”

The expensive Vision Pro is certainly not a fast bestseller. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a note to investors that Apple has told its supply chain to expect to build only 1 million units — and even that could be Apple preparing for overcapacity ahead of consumer demand.

Apple’s approach “suggests a lack of confidence that consumers will feel compelled to buy immediately without having to be convinced by in-store demos,” Sacconaghi wrote.

But the high price is less of an obstacle for corporate buyers.

Jay Wright, CEO of Campfire, a startup that makes software that uses headsets for remote collaboration on 3D files like engine designs, noted that the original Mac in 1984 cost nearly $7,500 today. However, small businesses prefer the Mac for its ability to create and print documents and brochures.

“It’s important to understand that this is not a consumer accessory like the Apple Watch. This is a whole new computing platform,” Wright said. “I think this is more post-Mac than post-iPhone.”