Having loved the VR genre since the days of Knightmare, and not wanting to buy either an Oculus after Meta’s acquisition, nor a high-end PC to run some other brands’ headsets, Apple’s entry into this market was always likely to be an instant purchase for me.
The Apple Vision Pro arrived with all the hype you would expect, and an exclusive price to match. But once that initial excitement died down, I found myself asking exactly what I would use the headset for; where’s the killer app? Indeed, is there even a real life use-case at all?
For me, it’s just not there yet, and feels a very First Gen device. Sure, the initial novel experience looks brilliant. But beyond that, I honestly can’t see anything I’d want to do regularly with the Vision Pro beyond watching a movie or show on Apple TV (which admittedly does look incredibly immersive). Certainly not professional design work, nor even anything simple like email, web browsing, or editing photos.
One of the major flaws is simply its limitation to a being a single person experience. You obviously can’t just quickly show your Vision Pro display to someone else, nor them see what you are doing (aside from Apple’s clunky way), let alone watch a film together. In a household, it seems very excluding to others.
So what could those killer apps be to bring the Vision Pro to a wider audience? Aside from gaming, which Apple seem to have initially shunned, the obvious direction is adding the classic virtual reality trait of immersive layers and interactive experiences – possibly akin to Netflix’s Black Mirror special, watching sport from any seat in the stadium, or meditative or travel apps that can transport you to luxury exotic realities and locations.
But all these things still feel quite ‘novelty’. A genuinely breakthrough app would be something far more emotive, perhaps tapping into the power of AI combined with VR to tackle human legacy and persona preservation after death, or (at the lighter end of the spectrum) maybe just experiencing the genuine first-hand thrill of a high octane sport – all from the comfort of your own house.
While impressive both in design and its technology, it still remains to be seen if Apple can take this leap with the Vision Pro. If they do, I’ll certainly be first in the queue again.