Nearly a year since launch, Apple’s Vision Pro still searching for a killer app

Apple launched its highly anticipated Vision Pro “spatial computing” headset last Feb. 2 amid significant hype — and hopes it could finally push virtual or mixed reality into mainstream use. 

But with a price tag of $3,499 and a staggered rollout to countries outside the US, the idea of widespread adoption was always optimistic; fewer than 500,000 of the devices have been sold to date, according to Bloomberg. (Others have provided similar estimates for first-year sales, though Apple itself declined to comment.)

“When you get right down to it, the numbers aren’t terrifically huge — I wouldn’t consider that something to jump up and down about,” said Ramon Llamas, research director for IDC’s Devices and Displays team. He described the Vision Pro as a first iteration that, like other first-gen Apple devices, will take some time to find a broader audience. 

“You’ve got to start somewhere, and Apple swung for the fences,” Llamas said. “They did a very good job in terms of UI and also in terms of display. So, do I consider it a flop? Absolutely not.” 

JLStock / Shutterstock

Despite shortcomings — the high price and a paucity of use cases, chief among them — it’s too early to write off the device or Apple’s broader strategy around augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), according to Llamas. “Apple is very quick to iterate and improve, such that a Gen. 2 or Gen. 3 Vision Pro is going to make the current device look quaint,” he said.

Vision Pro sales represent a small fraction of the number of iPhones sold each year (passing 200 million annually in recent years). The same goes for other devices in Apple’s line-up: iPads, Macbooks, and Apple Watches sell in the tens of millions a year. But those are well-established products, whereas the market for AR/VR devices is in its infancy: around 6.8 million devices were sold globally in 2023, according to the latest IDC data available, compared to more than 1 billion smartphones. (IDC expected about 9.7 million AR/VR devices to be sold in 2024.)

IDC expects continued growth for AR/VR devices during the next few years.
IDC

It could be more than a decade before widespread adoption occurs, said Tuong Nguyen, director analyst and part of Gartner’s Emerging Technology and Trends team. “So, a few hundred thousand [Vision Pro devices sold], I think that’s plenty good,” he said. “It’s a great start to a long journey.”

Vision Pro’s growing pains 

Reviews of the Vision Pro at launch pegged it as an impressive feat of engineering with significant drawbacks that preclude regular use. Those issues included a lack of content, short battery life, the neck-straining weight, and — perhaps the biggest drawback — the price. Most saw it more as a glimpse at the future of computing rather than a mainstream device. 

Nearly a year since launch, the Vision Pro remains a devise still in search of identity, with a key use case that has so far remained elusive. 

“There was a lot of hype when the Apple Vision Pro was first announced,” said Avi Greengart, president and founder of Techsponential. “And that hype hasn’t quite been matched with a killer app, or a set of killer apps, that have made people say: ‘Forget the cost or the comfort, I must have this device.’ But that’s how platforms evolve — VisiCalc didn’t show up on day one, or Excel. So, it will take time.”

Apple has cast a broad net in offering up potential uses for the headset.

Entertainment has been a prominent one, and the Vision Pro has been praised for its immersive — albeit solitary — entertainment experience. But Apple has struggled to cultivate an ecosystem of apps and content that can keep users returning to the headset. A Wall Street Journal report in October highlighted the difficulty in attracting developers to the platform, with native apps from big names such as YouTube and Netflix missing, though HBO Max and Disney+ are available. 

“Some of the most remarkable entertainment experiences are already available for the Apple Vision Pro, but they tend to be relatively short,” said Greengart. “We don’t yet see regular sports or music content that you can experience, like a subscription to your favorite NBA or NFL team where you get 50-yard line seats.” 

The slow uptake has put some consumer-facing companies off creating Vision Pro apps, said Jan Solecki, head of product strategy and growth at Nomtek, a software development agency that focuses on mobile and AR/VR apps. “They’re just waiting to see how the platform will perform: they’re not rushing to launch,” he said. Nomtek talked to a number of meditation app providers that considered the Vision Pro “and decided, ‘We don’t really have that user base there,’” he said.

Aside from video and virtual environments, one notable feature in the VisionOS 2.0 release is the ability to turn old photos into “spatial” 3D images; it’s a relatively simple addition, yet has proven popular with users.

Google Trends shows interest in the Vision Pro peaked around the time it launched, then flatlined after.
Google

Though gaming is often a primary use for virtual of mixed reality devices, but it’s not one Apple seems particularly interested in pursuing. Apple’s eye detection and hand gesture inputs are well suited to some tasks, but most games require a controller and the Vision Pro is hampered by a lack of hardware support. To perhaps remedy that, Apple is reportedly partnering with Sony to enable the use of its PlayStation VR hand controllers.

Personal productivity is another potential use, and one Apple has leaned into in its marketing materials. Work apps available on the Vision Pro include Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint alongside Apple’s own productivity tools. 

VisionOS updates in recent months have made it easier to use the headset in conjunction with a Macbook laptop, including the ability to connect a Bluetooth mouse and view a Macbook keyboard while in a virtual setting. There’s also wide-screen mode (and with the VisionOS 2.2 release an ultrawide screen option). “You can array windows all around your space, physical space, and create the equivalent of a six-monitor setup, and that’s pretty exciting,” said Greengart. 

Apple

The weight of the device — about 1.3 pounds — makes it harder for people to use it for long periods. But replacement head straps developed by third-party vendors do promise some relief, said Greengart. 

“One of the things that has made the biggest improvement is not a software update, but a hardware one,” he said, pointing to options from the likes of Annapro and medical device manufacturer ResMed. Still, neither of them “can completely negate the fact that this is still a rather heavy computer you’re strapping to your face,” he said. “That is one of the biggest constraints of the device today. It is not the most comfortable thing to wear over long periods of time.”

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ANNAPRO

Of course, those complaints can leveled at all mixed-reality headsets, and Apple has been lauded for the Vision Pro’s interface. “There’s no question that the price and the weight are inhibitors, but the user experience you get on an Apple Vision Pro is as of yet unmatched by anything else on the market,” said Greengart.

Apple targets the enterprise

Apple also sees the Vision Pro as an enterprise tool, and has pitched as being useful for collaboration, employee training, and remote assistance for frontline workers. 

“I would say they focus more on enterprise than they usually do with other products they’ve launched in the past, at least early on,” said Nguyen.

With a less-than-expected consumer interest in the Vision Pro, Nomtek shifted its attention to developing apps for business customers. “Very early on, we noticed a switch in Apple’s strategy to move more towards the enterprise customer.… With that in mind, we’ve been also following this strategy and targeting enterprises,” said Solecki. 

The company has worked on a variety of business-focused projects, including developing a Vision Pro app that provides step-by-step guidance and training for maintenance technicians at a jet manufacturer firm. A building material manufacturer is also exploring the development of a Vision Pro app to aid machinery maintenance for hundreds of factories around the world, Solecki said.

The arrival of VisionOS 2.0 helped broaden the number of potential enterprise use cases, he said, with a set of enterprise APIs. 

One API opens access to the main camera feed, allowing developers to create an “anomaly detection” app for a production worker to detect faulty components, according to Apple. Another enables QR code scanning and detection; that could be  useful for a warehouse worker scanning bar codes to verify packages have the correct item without the need for a hand-held scanner. It’s also now possible for developers to exceed the default limits on the Vision Pro’s processors to handle more demanding scenarios, such as rendering a high-fidelity, mixed-reality display of a race car. (That kind of use, however, can reduce battery life and increase fan noise.)

Teams users can join meetings using their Persona via the Vision Pro.
Microsoft

The addition of device management capabilities earlier this year also made it easier for enterprises to deploy multiple Vision Pro headsets, said Solecki, with more parameters to manage and restrict usage. “We are looking to implement this for an airline as an in-flight entertainment solution — we can really narrow down what they can do and they cannot do, to only access the apps that we’ve approved,” he said.

More generally, the Vision Pro launch served to reignite business interest in mixed reality. 

“Regardless of the actual sales of Apple Vision Pro, it has been very good for the XR scene as a whole industry,” said Solecki. “One company that came to us and wanted to build something on Vision Pro said: ‘We tried HoloLens years ago, and we didn’t like it and we just dropped it, but now Apple has released [the Vision Pro] and we want to try it.’ …People got excited again by an XR headset.”

As with consumer adoption, business demand has been cautious. An IDC survey of US-based IT managers with responsibility for purchasing AR/VR devices showed that only around a third of respondents are keen on acquiring the Vision Pro for their organization.

“I think Apple has a lot to do on both a software and hardware front before the Vision Pro will become a ‘must have’ device, even at a pilot level, at the typical US business,” Lewis Ward, senior research analyst at IDC and the report author, told Computerworld last year. 

Some industry sectors, such as finance and healthcare, remain more bullish, however. “The interest is there [from businesses], but there are still many hurdles that need to be overcome to make it viable for an enterprise,” said Nguyen. “One [is] price; two, we’ll just call it content: what can I do with this to make it worth this investment?”

If Vision Pro is just the start, what’s next?

Almost as soon as the Vision Pro launched, rumors of follow-up devices began to spread, including talk of a lower-priced version that strips out some premium features, such as the front-facing EyeSight display. 

A cheaper version could help attract a wider audience of users (and developers), at least until a “killer app” arrives that convinces people to invest serious money in a headset. “I don’t know if they will release something cheaper, but I will say they need to in order to get any meaningful adoption beyond what they’ve gotten already,” said Nguyen. 

Image: CCS Insight slide

There’s also talk of Apple developing lightweight augmented reality glasses — the Holy Grail for Apple and others. But, similar to Meta’s Project Orion prototype, any  augmented reality glasses from Apple are likely years away from release. 

In the meantime, the existence of the Vision Pro and Apple’s presence in the market could spur wider innovation. It “reinvigorated the competition” said Greengart, pointing to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who publicly talked up his company’s devices as a more affordable rival to the Vision Pro. 

In addition, Google recently announced its Android XR operating system, which will be used in a new Samsung headset due to launch this year. The device and OS bear a resemblance to Apple’s own hardware and software, with mixed reality pass-through and a multi-screen interface. 

Android XR places greater emphasis on the use of artificial intelligence — a strategy Apple’s likely to pursue, too, with potential to integrate Apple Intelligence into the mixed reality headset. 

“The competitive environment is what fosters the innovation,” said Nguyen. “That’s an opportunity for you to improve your product, your solution, your offering, whatever it happens to be.

“One thing that all can agree on is that the Vision Pro has given the market a much-needed boost. The announcement and launch advanced us a few steps closer to creating the conditions necessary for meaningful adoption growth.”