Apple Vision Pro Experience
by Brian Ardinger
What a great week for a celebration! From Chinese New Year to an overtime Super Bowl thriller to Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day, there have been a lot of things to get excited about this week. My biggest thrill came on my birthday when I had a chance to demo Apple’s new Vision Pro spatial computing headset.
I won’t get into a detailed review of all of the features and functionality in this piece, but if you want the inside scoop, watch Marques Brownlee’s fantastic YouTube reviews below:
- Using Apple Vision Pro: What It’s Actually Like!
- Apple Vision Pro Review: Tomorrow’s Ideas… Today’s Tech!
Here are a couple of observations I had from the experience.
Master of Experience
Apple is so good at proactively crafting positive customer experiences. From the details of a product unboxing experience to the retail environment, Apple is focused on the experience. Apple’s commitment to the experience was fully displayed when booking my demo at my local Apple Store. You can reserve a time using an iPad attached to the in-store display or directly through the Apple Store App.
After choosing a location and time and answering questions about your vision (Do you wear contacts? Do you have prescription lenses?), you are prompted to scan your face to “find your ideal fit” for the light seal and headband. When your time comes, an Apple associate greets you and brings out a custom-configured unit. I wear glasses, so the associate took my glasses over to a scanning unit in the store. They then returned with custom lenses that magnetically clipped into the Vision Pro. I’ve read that Apple has 38 different light seals and 900 corrective lens options that they can use.
Calibrate the Vision
I put the Vision Pro on, and my associate talked me through how to calibrate the vision by looking at a series of dots on the screen and pinching with my thumb and forefinger to select. It was freaky accurate. Look at a button on the screen. Pinch your finger, and voila, the item is clicked as if your eye and hands were a mouse. The demo experience walks you through various applications and use case scenarios, from viewing photos and movies to manipulating virtual screens.
The immersive demos were stunningly beautiful with depth of view, colors, and clarity — killing anything I have seen using my Oculus 2. One demo put you on the soccer pitch as if you were sitting on top of the goal. It felt like you were in the game. Watching a clip of Avatar in 3D was the first time I felt that a 3D movie worked as designed.
Early Adopters Matter
My second observation from my experience is that Apple has so many advantages when it comes to launching new innovations. No initial product launch, even from a company as detailed and focused as Apple, comes without bugs, glitches, and things needed to make it to a V2 release, and the Vision Pro is no different. It’s a stellar product, but it is still a V1 rendition. But unlike most companies, Apple has a significant advantage in that it has cultivated a dedicated fanbase and has built an army of followers willing to test, try, and buy any MVP Apple puts out –
Over the first couple of weeks, Apple has sold 200k units and brought in $700M in revenue. I was in the audience for Steve Jobs’s unveiling of the original iMac, so admittedly, I’ve been an Apple advocate for a really long time. Not only are these folks most likely to buy, try, and use Apple’s latest and greatest, but they’ll tell everyone they know about it. Access to this feedback will be invaluable to Apple’s future ability to iterate and adapt in a new market space. If you desire to build a $1 trillion-dollar company (or $1 million-dollar one), you’ll need to find and cultivate your early adopters.
My Takeaway
My takeaway from the 30 minutes of trying it out is that Apple has developed a platform and toolset that will enable the development of various new and creative applications and opportunities for developers and users. While this is just version one, you can begin to see the future today. I’d encourage everyone to give it a try and experience it yourself.
