Apple he announced Vision Prohis first AR/VR viewer, and today the trade press in the United States is filled with videos and articles with first impressions of the device – which will arrive at the beginning of 2024, initially only in America. Waiting for Apple to announce the device for our country as well, we have read all these very first reviews. And there are some points that seem to recur: although many are skeptical about the effective “usability” of the product, almost all they were amazed at what he can do. Ma markets seem unimpressed – we then asked for a comment on the negative impact on Apple stock a Mariangela Pira of SkyTG24.
Apple Vision Pro, the first impressions on the Cupertino viewer
If there’s one thing that, even on this side of the Atlantic, you can immediately understand about Apple Vision Pro, it’s that Apple wanted to amaze. It was not satisfied with launching “an” AR/VR headset: Tim Cook himself said he wants to do for spatial computing what iPhone has done for the smartphone. A revolution, Cupertino is not afraid to say it. But is it really so?
Some journalists from the most important technology magazines in the USA, youtubers and tech influencers, were able to test Apple’s “space computer” for 30 minutes. And until next year, they will be the only ones who don’t work in Cupertino to do so. So we wanted to summarize what they think of this very ambitious product.
The quality of the screen and mixed reality
One thing that everyone seems to agree on is the quality of the hardware chosen by Apple for this viewer. The screens from 23 million pixels that we can put before our eyes provide high quality images. And US reporters report that Apple had prepared a series of lenses Zeiss for eyeglass wearers, so you can enjoy the demonstrations – lenses that will be sold separately.
Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch writes that he has tried every major AR and VR headset released since 2013. And what Vision Pro is “orders of magnitude better than any headset that most consumers have come into contact with.” The Verge’s Nilay Patel explains that the screens are “absolutely insane” and “It’s easily the VR display with the highest resolution I’ve ever seen“. And all the sources we’ve consulted seem to agree: Not only are text on sites easily read on Safari, but watching a movie with Vision Pro really is like going to the movies — not an exaggeration on Apple’s part.
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Another point that everyone agrees on is mixed reality, with the passthrough mode. A digital crown on the sensor allows you to switch from augmented reality, which lets you see the world around you, to a virtual reality “digital environment”. In AR, The Verge’s Patel could take notes and TechCrunch’s Panzarino was looking at his smartphone. But the most impressive thing seems to be the transition from VR to “true” reality. If you start talking to someone in VR mode, Vision Pro understands this and shows that person next to you. Patel says he “gasped” for the surprise and youtuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) says “I don’t like to describe the technology as magic, but it was magic.”
Lightweight design but doubts about autonomy
In a Short on YouTube, Bloomberg Technology explains that the device design feels particularly light on the head of the beholder. Marques Brownlee says that while it is true that all VR viewers tire after prolonged use, the lightness of the device and the quality of the images “should tire less than the competition”.
Many, however, point out that one of the reasons it feels so light is that the battery is external. A cable connects to the power bank that you can keep in your pocket while using the device – which according to Bloomberg is an inelegant and inconvenient solution. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac says the cable though it didn’t bother him at all during the demo. Marques Browlee explains that one of the advantages will be the ease of upgrading with larger batteries to increase autonomy, which should be two hours. Which are perhaps too few “watching movies on Vision Pro sounds great, but many movies today last more than two hours” comments MKBHD.
First impressions of Apple’s Vision Pro: who will take full advantage of it?
Miller of 9to5Mac, who also explains in detail the setup process and the various tests made with the device, seems among the most enthusiastic. “Do some features of Vision Pro look like gimmicks? Absolutely. But much of what I’ve seen today is proof of how awesome mixed reality can be when it’s done right, using top-notch hardware and software. As the ecosystem expands, some of the content that may seem like gimmicks can be replaced with incredible experiences.” But even he thinks the viewer “It won’t be an instant success.”
TechCrunch’s Panzarino defines it “the platonic ideal of an XR viewer” but says we’ll have to stay and see if developers will create an ecosystem to take full advantage of it. Even Patel of The Verge thinks that Apple has shown “that it can still beat everyone on hardware” but that “whether Apple’s famous developer community can generate a killer app for Vision Pro is still up in the air“.
First impressions of Apple’s Vision Pro are positive. But the point is, while the offer is great, the headset market still has one low demand. Marques Brownlee says it is for now “an impressive toy for the wealthy and a muse to inspire developers, but we’ll see how far he can go.”
The reaction of the markets
In addition to the impressions of the American press, we asked Mariangela Pira of SkyTG24 to explain the impact on the markets of this new announcement with immediate comments. Because as of this writing, Apple is losing 4.76 basis points – a drop of 2.77% compared to its record-breaking rating.
“The stock performed poorly because investors were hoping it could somehow save the metaverse, this idea of shared virtual space. Maybe with a ‘light’ product, somehow. Instead [Apple] presented a ‘heavy’ product, which also costs a lot. So who knows when it will hit the market in a serious way. And as if from Apple – which revolutionized the market for computers, smartphones, smartwatches – we expected more. Otherwise it is not explained why the stock has dropped from the best quotation ever before the launch of the product. There is something wrong. The market is always right. The Metaverse is like a kind of black hole where money disappears. [Apple] she wasn’t able to present it in the coolest way possible.”
The markets seem to agree with US reporters. The device seems to work very well and has some very impressive hardware. But uncertainty remains because the AR/VR headset market remains incredibly volatile. And while Apple never mentioned ‘metaverse’ during the presentation, no one yet knows if the arrival of the Apple will be enough to relaunch this sector which, for now, has not yet delivered what it promised.