The Apple Vision Pro Isn’t Meant For You

Why the Furore Over Pricing Is Heavily Misplaced

Like many viewers of WWDC ’23 I was both amazed and puzzled by the announcement of Apple’s heavily-rumoured AR headset, the Vision Pro. I am a staunch believer in spatial computing and strongly believe that it represents the future of where devices are headed. I believe the future of AR needs an article in itself and so will go into more detail on this at a later date. Suffice to say that within a decade, your computing experiences will no longer be tied to a screen but set free into the world around us.

Consumer-level AR technology is however a long way away from its ‘iPhone’ moment. Despite Apple’s marketing push of floating iPhone apps and turning your bedroom ceiling into the sky (Protip: go outside) there isn’t a compelling reason for the average customer to own one yet. This is even more strongly reflected in its pricing: $3,500 plus sales tax. You’re probably also going to want AppleCare for that exterior glass visor too.

Whilst at first glance it seems like an oxymoronic promotion of home users and business-deductible pricing, the truth is that the Vision Pro isn’t for that market at all.

I work in a Construction Laboratory, a dusty mix of scientific equipment and engineering spaces at a British Higher Education institute. We have pieces of hardware designed to gather data and manufacture samples that regularly costs northwards of £10,000. Even man-portable devices regularly push past this ceiling due to…