The Apple Vision Pro was meant to take the world by storm, sadly, take a summary glance at any number of reviews of the product and you’ll likely encounter many very similar points being made.
Despite VR/AR headsets slowly capturing an audience for the last decade, many seem to think that Apple has plucked this technology from the ether. Not only that, there’s a growing consensus that being able to “see” what a company was intending to do is enough to justify spending $3,500 on a piece of tech that can’t get there.
At times, it would seem that the Apple Vision Pro has effectively become the first-ever device to be reviewed based on the promise of its as-of-yet non-existent follow-up. But for just how long will that be the case? Well, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, about 18 months.
The Vision Pro 2: A device actually intended for you
Amid online fervor about Apple users returning their Vision Pro headsets, let me be the first to say: as is the case with any product release, a disgruntled minority can often overpower the appeased majority — at least in terms of online discourse.
Are Apple users returning their headsets en masse? No, not likely. But with the news of a second-generation headset only 18 months out, maybe they should.
Is the Vision Pro a terrible product? Unlikely, in fact, just about everyone we’ve heard from stresses that the tech housed within is fantastic. Just that there’s very little to do with it, the VisionOS software isn’t all that refined, it weighs considerably more than its competition, and, oh yeah, it costs $3,500.
Now, if you’ve bought your Vision Pro and you’re as happy as Larry, more power to you. If you’re the sort who wants to put down the better part of $4K on a device and not have it be a neck-crushing compromise machine, then maybe think about giving the headset a little bit more time to bake.
Outlook
18 months isn’t all that long to wait, and the potential refinements coming down the pipeline for the Vision Pro could result in the eventual product many current-day reviewers are claiming to envision in Apple’s first-generation offering.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Apple’s Vision Pro is a $3,500 developer kit incorrectly marketed to wider audiences as a consumer-ready product and the birth of spatial computing. While that sounds cool, that’s just Apple marketing jargon for “VR/AR headset.”
While it’s unlikely that Vision Pro headsets will be the modern-day e-waste nightmare that the Atari 2600’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” was, those plucking up the courage to overcome the sunken cost fallacy of the Vision Pro’s epic price tag are to be commended for breaking the conditioning.
The fact of the matter is, that in 18 months, there could be a cheaper, lighter, more polished product to lay your hands on that won’t cost you another $3,500 to pick up. Instead of spending $7,000 on two Vision Pro headsets, simply cut your losses and wait for the second generation, or the rumored cheaper model of the Vision Pro (the.. Vision, I guess) rumored to be following Apple’s current release.
