When the VR/AR industry cheers for Apple, what are they cheering for?

Author: Zhang Yu

Apple's headset is finally here, and it's called the Apple Vision Pro.

Since 2018, rumors about this mysterious head-mounted display device have never stopped. Every few months, there will be news that Apple will seek solutions in the upstream supply chain and carry out product verification, suggesting that the product is already on the line, but every time the ending is "jumping", until today.

This is the first time Apple has introduced a new computing platform since the release of the Apple Watch in 2014. Everyone is full of expectations. Users, developers, and even competitors in the same industry are the same. After all, in Apple's nearly half a century of entrepreneurial history, whenever it creates a new hardware paradigm, it has opened up a huge market increase.

Apple Vision Pro is Apple's most epoch-making hardware from the Tim Cook era | Reuters

But this time, things got a little more nuanced.

On the one hand, Apple Vision Pro has the top hardware specifications and parameters in the industry, which will most likely improve the experience of head-mounted display devices to a new level; It is doomed that it will not be quickly distributed and popularized like the iPhone.

**As the first product launched by Apple in the headset category, the symbolic significance of Apple Vision Pro is far greater than the revenue brought by actual sales. It not only anchors the cognitive expectations of users, but also raises a banner for developers, and it is also an experience benchmark for the entire industry. ** Regardless of the ultimate success or failure, Apple will bring an earthquake to the VR and AR industries.

From today, the history of VR and AR has opened a new page.

01 $3499 "Next Generation Headset"

Apple Vision Pro is equipped with a hardware configuration that goes beyond the norm.

The first is the resolution. As previously revealed, the Apple Vision Pro is equipped with a single-eye super 4K display module, plus a three-piece Pancake lens solution. The total number of pixels in the entire display system is as high as 23 million.

Although this display system has not yet reached the retinal level of "monocular 8K", it is already quite close, surpassing all head-mounted display products currently on the market.

Apple Vision Pro's screen reaches 4K resolution per eye｜Apple

In terms of sensor configuration, Apple has spared no expense. In addition to the built-in 4 cameras for eye tracking, Apple is also equipped with up to 13 sensors on the front panel of the headset, including high-definition cameras and laser sensors, which can shoot and perceive the user's surrounding environment. Provide comprehensive AR functions.

** For many years, Apple has insisted on developing AR (Augmented Reality) technology, believing that computing devices cannot be completely divorced from reality. ** Including the fact that the concept of "Metaverse" became popular due to the name change of Meta. Cook has also publicly expressed that he does not think VR is the direction of technological evolution.

But at present, the relevant technology of VR head display has become the mainstream of the industry. Even the Apple Vision Pro had to adopt a VR solution and transform it into an AR platform by means of an external camera.

The final result is that the cost of Apple Vision Pro remains high, and the pricing is quite astonishing. Previously, some media sorted out the supply chain quotations of Apple Vision Pro, and found that the cost of parts and materials alone exceeded 1,500 US dollars, and the final price was 3,499 US dollars, and it was only sold in the United States at the initial stage. "nature.

** It can be said that although it has been officially released, Apple Vision Pro will not immediately enter the lives of most ordinary people within 1-2 years. **Most consumers, especially domestic users, will not buy this generation of products.

Previously, it was revealed that Apple's sales target for the first year of Apple Vision Pro release was set at 1 million units. For Apple, this sales target can be said to be very conservative. As a reference, when the first-generation Apple Watch was released, the number of pre-orders on the first day alone exceeded 1 million.

The high pricing of Apple Vision Pro is destined to not promote the product quickly｜Apple

But considering the overall size of the VR/AR market, the sales target of 1 million can be said to be ambitious. After all, the total global shipments of VR/AR head-mounted display devices in 2022 will only be 8.8 million units. If Apple can successfully sell 1 million units of Apple Vision Pro, it means that it can win about 10% of the market share.

Considering that Apple will almost certainly launch next-generation products with lower prices and a wider audience in the future, if it can achieve 1 million sales in the first year, this will be a very good start.

**What is certain is that the development blueprint of Apple Vision Pro will be longer than any previous Apple product. **This is a real "next-generation" headset, and most ordinary users may have to wait a long time before they can really use it.

02 "Raise the flag" for developers

The Apple Vision Pro won't be officially available to the public until next spring, and initially only in the United States.

However, Apple still chooses to release Vision Pro half a year in advance on the occasion of WWDC. The reason behind it is to release it in advance to prevent the product from leaking during the mass production process. Another important consideration is also the "development ecology". Apple needs to lay out in advance , raise a flag for developers.

**In the current demonstration of Apple Vision Pro, most of the applications are the "Vision version" of iPhone, iPad, and Mac applications. They just project the flat App into the space and hang it up. The problems they actually solve are different from those of native iOS , macOS App is no different. **

However, the vision app that is truly native to visionOS and built with a spatial model still needs third-party developers to use their imagination to create it.

Including the specific usage scenarios of Apple Vision Pro, Apple did not make a very clear definition, but rather broadly demonstrated that it can run iPhone, iPad, Mac app, display 3D photos and videos, and can cover home entertainment, productivity office, communication and collaboration And many other scenes.

In the video of Apple Vision Pro, the use scene is still the "3D" of 2D applications｜Apple

In Apple's demonstration, Vision Pro can be all computing devices such as mobile phones, tablets, computers, and TVs at the same time. But how to go beyond these traditional computing devices and provide a unique experience is still something that developers need to explore.

It can be said that this time the Apple Vision Pro has the smell of a "development kit" inside and out. Not only because it was released at WWDC, not only because of the high price, but also because it is very unusually not equipped with a built-in battery. The whole product is powered by an external battery, and it only lasts for 2 hours when it is disconnected from the power supply.

After the press conference, some iOS developers believed that the Apple Vision Pro released this time is almost a development version of hardware for the development team to develop and debug at their desks, so there is no built-in battery. **The Vision App developed by the developer on this generation of products will run on the next generation of products in the future. There is a high probability that the follow-up products will optimize the lightweight design, eventually realize the built-in battery, reduce the price, and face a broader consumer market. **

No one can know exactly what Apple's true intentions are. The only thing that is certain is that with the promotion of Apple, the entire XR development ecology will be injected with a shot in the arm.

03 The "Great Navigation Era" of the VR and AR industries

With the giant ship of Apple entering the water, the entire VR and AR industry will usher in the "Great Navigation Era".

In the past few years, a major development dilemma faced by the VR and AR industries is that few companies can devote enough resources to break through the ceiling of VR and AR technology, products, and development ecology. That's why the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR chip has been slow to iterate, the update pace of Meta Quest has slowed down, and the global shipments of VR and AR headsets have declined in 2022.

**The entry of Apple now means both competition and more opportunities. **

In the past few decades, every time Apple entered a new product category, it almost brought a huge market increase. From the iPhone to the smartphone, the iPad to the tablet, to the Apple Watch to the wristband, to the AirPods to the TWS earphones... While leading the industry, Apple has also opened the door to many opportunities.

Including the way and logic of product definition, Apple Vision Pro has also formed some tacit understanding and consensus with many companies in the industry. For example, in the design of the lens, Apple also adopted the Pancake design previously used on Quest Pro and PICO 4.

And the mainstream product definition method in the industry before is to make VR headsets, but now whether it is the PICO 4 series products or the Quest 3 just released by Meta, they all adopt a solution similar to Apple, that is, configure the camera on the front panel to explore The product form of MR "combination of reality and reality".

On-site media bee chrysalis filmed the Apple Vision Pro display machine｜AP

For all VR and AR companies, especially those relatively small startups, the market benefits brought by Apple far outweigh the competitive pressure. The era has just begun.

In addition, it is the pioneers in those industries that provide some lower-priced options for users who want to try VR and AR.

For example, for domestic users, considering that Apple Vision Pro will not be released in China for at least one year, you can still choose the PICO 4 series at this time, and you can experience a product definition method similar to Apple Vision at a lower price. The Pro is a fairly similar headset.

Whether it is 4K+ resolution for both eyes, Pancake lens, or one-piece, lightweight design, PICO 4 represents the current level of the first echelon in the industry, and the content ecology is relatively mature. It has also achieved the first market share in China and the second in the world.

Many people regard the release of Apple Vision Pro as the "iPhone moment" in the field of VR and AR. However, the technology evolution cycle of the headset will be longer than that of the smartphone in the past.

**From this perspective, the most exciting thing about Apple Vision Pro may not lie in the product itself, but in the curtain of the next era that it will open. **