The Apple Vision Pro headset, priced at $3,499, won’t be available until next year but promises to usher in a new era of «spatial computing.»
Apple raised the curtain Monday on its much anticipated mixed reality headset in a video presentation at its World Wide Developers Conference on the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif.
The Apple Vision Pro headset, priced at $3,499, won’t be available until next year but promises to usher in a new era of “spatial computing.”
“This is an extremely important product in the history of computing,” declared Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology advisory firm in San Jose, Calif.
“Apple gave us the Mac with the graphical interface,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Then it gave us the iPhone with pocket computing. It gave us the iPad with tablet computing.”
“Each one broke new ground,” he continued. “Now it’s giving the world another whole new interface with gestures, eye-tracking, and speech recognition.”
“The technology goes way beyond anything we’ve seen,” he added. “There is no headset in the world of virtual reality that comes close to this. This is a full computer in a headset.”Best-In-Class Hardware
The Vision Pro, which looks like a pair of ski goggles, is bristling with technology, including sensors that enable a user to control virtual displays with their eyes, hands, and voice, and a 3D camera.
“It looks like it will comfortably slot in as best-in-class hardware, of course, with a price point to match,” observed Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research, a technology advisory company headquartered in Oyster Bay, N.Y.
“Eye tracking, dedicated silicon, high pixel density screens, and a substantial sensor array are all great values for a VR headset,” he told TechNewsWorld. “I don’t believe there has been as feature complete a headset as Vision Pro, but the price highlights why that is.”
“It’s also interesting that the device has the Pro moniker as a first gen product –usually there is at least one iteration of a ‘normal’ device before Pro branding hits, but this feels intentional to allow that ‘normal’ product to slot in under the Pro in both price and performance,” he added.
The long-anticipated product met expectations, noted Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in San Jose, Calif.
