US Apple fans get hands on US$3,500 Vision Pro
- With a high price, and the middling success of similar and cheaper releases from Meta, early reviewers are unconvinced that the Vision Pro will be a game changer
- Apple refers to the Vision Pro as its first foray into ‘spatial computing’, refusing the term virtual reality, which is typically associated with tech geeks and gamers
US Apple Stores on Friday will start selling the Vision Pro, the tech giant’s US$3,499 mixed-reality headset and its first major release since the Apple Watch nine years ago.
Vision Pro’s release by the world’s most iconic device maker is a major milestone for the lovers of virtual or augmented reality, who see the technology as the next chapter in online life after the smartphone.
But with a high sticker price, and the middling success of similar and cheaper releases from Facebook owner Meta Platforms, early reviewers are unconvinced that the Vision Pro will be a game changer, at least initially.
The Vision Pro is an “astonishing” product, wrote The Verge, but “also represents a series of really big trade-offs” that are “impossible to ignore”.
It is “an impressive product, one that has been many years and billions of dollars in the making” but “even after trying it, I still have no idea whom or what this thing is supposed to be for”, wrote The New York Times.