- Apple Vision Pro.
It's Apple's augmented reality headset announced at WWDC.
Now, you can see the outside world
and interact with your favorite apps
on an infinite number of virtual screens.
With over 8 million pixels per eye,
and Apple's first 3D camera,
the tech in Vision Pro is truly breathtaking.
But what exactly is the use case
for this $3,500 headset?
In the keynote,
Apple kept showing people using it
to view their photos and videos,
but most people are not gonna spend that kind of money
just to have their own personal IMAX theater.
So what exactly could you do
with Apple Vision Pro to make it worth buying?
There's three main advantages I see
to an augmented reality headset.
One is ultimate portability with a giant setup.
I have a nice desk set up.
I've got 2 27-inch 4K monitors,
and I like the screen real estate I have.
I find I'm so much more productive with the big screens
than I am when I take my laptop
and I'm trying to work in a hotel room.
So with Apple Vision Pro,
I could take it with me wherever I go.
And whether I'm in a hotel room across the country,
or even outside, I could have an infinite number of displays
and have all the screen real estate I'm used to.
The next advantage is to have larger-than-life experiences
that were previously impossible.
I could just put Apple Vision Pro on
and watch a movie on a display
that feels over a hundred feet wide.
There's also a ton of potential
for gaming with augmented reality,
and this aspect of augmented reality is fun.
Personally, I hope to see Apple Vision Pro being used
in places like theme parks and malls,
think laser tag on steroids,
or roller coasters with next-level virtual theming.
And the third aspect to augmented reality
is actually not a new concept at all.
In fact, we've seen this used in old AR products
like Google Glass,
but it's getting access to instant information.
Imagine working on a project
and just looking at the wood stud
and instantly getting a measurement
instead of having to pull out your tape measure,
or imagine working on your car
and looking at the bolt that you need to remove,
and having the right socket size pop up
so you know which one to get.
I could even see a world
in which we have fully guided experiences
for car repairs and home projects,
that highlight exactly what to do next.
These use cases for an augmented reality headset
are super cool, but the reality is
the tech just isn't there yet.
As awesome as Apple Vision Pro is,
it's still a goofy, chunky computer strapped to your head
with an external battery pack
that only has a two-hour battery life.
Since it is an external battery pack,
I'm sure you'll be able to buy multiple batteries
and switch them out as they die.
But it's a $3,500 headset and it's an Apple product,
so I can't imagine additional batteries are gonna be cheap.
But this is Apple's first generation headset,
the tech will get better, the battery life will get longer,
the headset will get more compact.
Someday, it's just going to be an average pair of glasses
like I am wearing right now.
This is a brand-new product category for Apple,
and I think they fully intend on it killing the smartphone.
Apple has always been known to compete with themselves.
When the iPhone came out,
it was meant to kill the iPod.
When the iPod came out,
it was meant to kill the personal computer.
Apple Vision Pro is Apple's vision for the future
and the death of the iPhone.
In five to 10 years,
people might have this technology embedded
in a normal pair of glasses.
Everyone's just gonna be walking around
with an infinite number of displays
and information at their fingertips,
and that's what scares me about augmented reality.
AR and VR headsets are nothing new.
Companies like Oculus have been working on them for years,
but Apple's introduction of their AR headset
shows that the technology has progressed enough
that Apple sees this as a long-term play.
They've set the stage for the death
of the smartphone as we know it.
We already have so much stimulation
with the constant stream of content from social media,
but right now,
you're limited by the confines of your displays.
You have to look at your phone, your tablet, your watch,
your laptop, your TV
in order to consume content.
But with the rapid development of AR headsets
combined with AI,
we could soon be living in a world
with an infinite number of screens around us 24/7
with constant content, data, and noise.
Listen, I love tech.
The engineering behind this is incredible.
It's impressive, and it's a job well done
from the team at Apple
that's worked tirelessly on this for years.
But let's not forget
that technology can sometimes be harmful
as much as it can be helpful.
I'm concerned about the future of human interaction
with the rise of AR.
How long until a group of friends
are all in the same room,
but no one is fully present
because they're all watching something in their glasses?
How long until we're all gathered around a restaurant table,
but nobody is really talking to each other?
We're all just staring off into the distance
at our virtual displays in our glasses
waiting for our food to show up.
Most of us have already developed bad habits
with our smartphones in social scenarios,
and AR glasses can only make that so much worse.
And you know that anxiety you feel
when your phone dies, or you accidentally leave it at home?
Well, what happens when your headset dies
or you take it off to go to sleep?
It's all just a little bit unsettling to me.
Look, I like the tech behind Apple Vision Pro.
I'm all for it for unique special experiences on occasion,
but the idea of AR headsets replacing smartphones
scares me quite a bit.