Specs, software, could help it break the VR curse

Apple‘s new Vision Pro headset has sparked a resurgence of interest in head-worn computers that immerse users in a virtual world.

Engineers have been dreaming about virtual reality since 1968 when a professor at the University of Utah built the first 3D VR headset, and since then some of the most powerful consumer electronics companies have released headsets, including Nintendo, Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Sony. None have been a hit.

Now Apple’s at the table and virtual reality experts and developers say it has a chance to succeed where others haven’t.

“When people ask me what’s really special about this announcement, in one word, it’s Apple. The largest tech company in the world and also the most responsible,” said Ori Inbar, co-founder of Superventures and the CEO of Augmented World Expo, an industry conference. “They always put everything behind every product they put out there. And that’s exactly the message they’re sending to the XR industry, but also to everyone else out there.”

Apple’s reputation and record afford it the benefit of the doubt when it comes to genuinely new technologies, and many consumers already own and like Apple’s products.

Apple commercialized the success of multitouch displays with the iPhone, which transformed the smartphone industry by showing the world a new way to interact with phones. It may be able to replicate that in the VR industry with the Vision Pro’s gesture and voice-based user interface. Unlike other headsets, it doesn’t require a controller.

“Part of the Apple effect is they’ve built up this brand equity, they’ve done it time and time again, across multiple categories, whether it’s the watch, music player, and of course, the smartphone,” said Tipatat Chennavasin, general partner at the Venture Reality Fund. “What I think is really interesting about it, too, is they clearly laid out for their vision for the future — this is the next iPhone, the next big platform.”

The Apple Vision Pro is significantly more powerful than nearly all competing products on the market. It’s equipped with two high-definition screens, a battery of cameras and sensors, and custom processors that reduce latency and lag. Put simply: It can do more than any other headset.

The increased horsepower under Apple’s goggles has also enabled a relatively new concept, sometimes called “XR,” “mixed reality,” or “passthrough,” or, as Apple dubs it, “spatial computing.”

The cameras on the outside of the Vision Pro can display the real world in near-real time inside the headset, which makes the technology less isolating, and addresses one long-time issue with virtual reality: Users can’t see what’s around them while they’re in virtual reality.

But Apple also has to change the public perception of virtual reality. The moment that everyday consumers wear headsets on a daily basis may still be years away.

One notable aspect of Apple’s Vision Pro is that it has a lot of raw power and expensive parts. Past initial Apple products didn’t emphasize processor speed, display resolution, or specifications.

The Vision Pro does. A short and incomplete list of its components we know so far:

• Two Micro-OLED displays about an inch in diameter, each with the resolution of over a 4K television.
• An Apple M2 processor — the same as in a laptop — and a specialized R1 processor for cameras and other visuals.
• Eye tracking
• Six microphones
• 12 cameras and five sensors for monitoring hand gestures

All these specs put together means that the Apple Vision Pro operates at a higher level of fidelity than products currently on the market, like Meta’s $299 Quest 2, which uses a mobile processor and has lower resolution screens.

It also costs a whole lot more: It costs at least $3,499, and likely even more if users opt for custom lenses or other potential upgrades, like storage.

The powerful specs allow the Vision Pro to display the outside world through video feeds on the inside of the headset in real time, making it the first device to do both high-quality VR, which transports users to a virtual world, and AR, which integrates virtual objects into the real world.

“Apple seems to be all in on the notion that it will let you see out, but it will let you see out using cameras and passthrough and very, very, very, low latency and very, very, very, high-powered computing and processing applied to the problem,” said Avi Greengart, analyst at Techsponential, who demoed the headset earlier this week at Apple’s campus.

That’s compared to rival devices like Magic Leap and Microsoft Hololens, which use transparent displays, that require less processing power but offer lower-quality images.

This level of visual quality means that demos can be better, and that developers don’t have to limit themselves based on the hardware. There’s headroom for new experiences that require a lot of processing power.

It also establishes a floor for virtual reality experiences going forward: Once people have tried an Apple headset, with thousands of dollars of computing gear, it will be more difficult to use a cheaper headset without seeing the tradeoffs.

“Apple is unapologetically saying, in order to do VR, or AR, or what they’re calling ‘spatial computing,’ this is the experience you need to offer, and that’s the price point it’s going to cost,” said Greengart. “Anyone else coming out with a product at that price point would simply be dismissed as niche. But Apple, because of its history with consumer products, and because of its history iterating, you can expect the experience gets better over time, and the price comes down — well, hopefully it comes down.”

Eye tracking often uses small sensors to see where the user’s gaze is resting. It works well, according to people who had controlled hands-on demos earlier this week. “Meta’s headset has a similar feature, but it doesn’t work nearly as well as it does on Apple Vision, if it works at all,” wrote CNBC’s Steve Kovach.