Apple’s vision lacks clarity for its Vision Pro

The launch of Apple’s Vision Pro — the tech giant’s first foray into mixed-reality headsets, even if it insists on calling it a spatial computer—finally arrived in February this year. It started with the US before promising more locations, Singapore included, in the near future. 

In June, reports came that Apple had suspended the development of the Apple Vision Pro 2 to work on a cheaper, more affordable model that they planned to release in August 2025.

The device certainly sold well enough, with estimates putting initial sales for the US$3,499 ($4,721) headset at around 200,000 units — and that was just for pre-orders. In Singapore, the device is priced at $5,299 upwards.

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The reviews that soon followed were decidedly — though rather fittingly — varied for the mixed reality headset. 

The Vision Pro was lauded for its absurdly pretty video passthrough capabilities, which allowed it to recreate the physical world in unerringly high fidelity on the bijou MicroOLED displays over your eyes. 

Tracking was also said to be a step up, both in terms of spatial tracking that allows you to, say, place kitchen timers over individual pots as you cook, as well as eye movements and gestures to control your experience.

Expectations for the Vision Pro’s integration into Apple’s growing ecosystem were also duly met.

But it was heavy, uncomfortable to wear and use for long periods, and, obviously, very, very pricey. It launched with what sounds like a good number of apps — almost 600 built specifically for the headset on its release, plus a million compatible apps already on the Apple Store — but none of these, so far, seem to have made a definitive argument for the Vision Pro.

Opening up a world of opportunities

It is a truly “sticky, killer use case” that will turn Apple’s Vision Pro from a mixed-reality device into the reality device, says Chiew Le Xuan, an analyst at technology market analysis at Canalys.

“It already goes the extra mile compared to traditional VR (virtual reality) goggles designed purely for stationary use in gaming or entertainment,” he offers. “The design inherently nudges users to go mobile.”

Aside from being adopted by Apple fanatics as the next productivity must-have in its growing ecosystem — “imagine getting your morning coffee at Starbucks and working on an Excel spreadsheet while waiting” — “clear opportunities” in the near term include the “enterprise and education segment.”

Enter Presence Pictures, a coding school and edutainment centre in Singapore that managed to snag three Vision Pro headsets during the US launch and has since integrated them into its hands-on, mixed-reality coding lessons for children aged six to 14.

Co-founder Edmund Lee says, “With the Apple Vision Pro, our students' coding projects' immersive XR (extended reality) outcomes have been greatly enhanced. Our creators can code and create interactive virtual worlds in ways not possible in older versions of VR headsets.”

He adds that the device’s “high-quality eye- and hand-tracking”, combined with its “passthrough capabilities”, make for a mixed-reality environment that is more immersive than ever before, enhancing learning.

Fellow co-founder Eunice Lam offers, “The big shift in this technology is the “infinite canvas”. There is no longer the constraint of a physical, two-dimensional screen like a TV or projector screen. Students can explore digital content as if it were part of their physical space.”

“I can imagine learning happening in impossible scenarios just by sitting in your living room, for example, travelling to the bottom of the ocean and seeing how pollution affects marine life as if you were there. In a science lesson, students can interact with atoms and molecules and move them around using their bare hands. The Apple Vision Pro is expected to make learning more engaging and memorable by enabling learners to “live” the content,” she adds.

Outside of education, the device has also been adopted by luxury carriers like Beond, a new Maldivian-based airline, which plans to offer the device to selected passengers on its flights in and out of the Maldives.

Pundits have also identified sports training as a potential vector for use — at least once safety considerations of exercising with a heavy headset have been accounted for — as well as healthcare in terms of reducing training time for new surgeons.

“Intriguing, untested use cases for the Vision Pro include mixed-reality for accessibility — picture people with visual impairments getting real-time AR advice to improve their freedom and navigation — along with mental health treatment, creating a secure and regulated therapeutic environment for exposure treatment or guided meditation,” says Naval Joshi, co-founder and managing director of Singapore-based mixed-reality digital design firm NXT Interactive.

“You could also have collaborative XR workplaces, with engineers or architects working together to synchronously create 3D models in the same virtual environment, no matter where they are located,” he adds.

Developer support is key 

When the iPhone dropped in 2007, everyone scoffed, and then they followed. 

History repeated itself years later when Apple removed the headphone jack to widespread chagrin while introducing wireless earbuds. That hasn’t come yet for the Vision Pro. Even the tech giant itself seems to be taking tentative steps forward.

“Its high price point and lack of availability outside of the US market seems to me like they’ve adopted a wait-and-see approach — to see what users and developers are doing with it, and capitalising on the opportunities that follow,” says Canalys’ Lex.

The sticking point moving forward, he offers, is developer support.

“Apple famously has a very closed ecosystem. This is a double-edged sword. It enhances security and control, but developers may find that too many rules surrounding development hinder progress,” says Canalys’ Chiew.

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Still, remember those 600 dedicated Vision Pro apps available at launch? It’s now grown to 1,000.

That’s partially why Canalys foresees a bright future for the mixed reality device, which Chiew also says stands to gain massively from the generative AI tsunami — even if Apple refuses to broach the topic.

The market research firm predicts that Apple will eventually “surpass all other players in the XR field”, with the Vision Pro and its successors “reaching a 20 million user base by the fifth year after the product launch in 2024.”

Though that’s provided, of course, the mixed-reality headset finds some use cases that aren’t just mixed-reality ones but Vision Pro ones.