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Upcoming Apple Vision Pro Could Get More Comfortable 'Dual Knit Band'

I wanted to give Apple the benefit of the doubt on this product for the longest time and assumed they must know something I don't, but it's really looking grim.

Glasses just make more sense, especially for Apple. I'd really like to know why they thought this particular product was a good idea.
 
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The Vision Pro is a hardware product that pushes what the best hardware engineers in the world can do. This is Apple's most forward looking platform, and a place of *significant* investment. Vision Pro 2 isn't going to be a speed bump. I'm predicting significant upgrades in the lenses, reality chip, M4/5, as well as a much improved price point. Apple will not be satisfied with selling to the same early adopters. They want a wider market, and they've gained a lot of feedback from one of its most secretive projects. I guarantee Apple will make significant strides in performance, ergonomics, and price. This is a decades long roadmap we're talking about here.
 
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Kottu said:
It is good for designing vehicles, devices etc. Medical fields can really make use of it. Connect with 3D,4D MRI imaging. Possibilities are endless. As a consumer, I don’t see any use for it unless I am a single. If the battery can’t last for 6-8 hours, it is not good enough for professionals either
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But the question is whether Apple can enter those markets.

Microsoft abandoned their HoloLens products. Now granted, it's not exactly the same product, but in contrast to Apple, Microsoft already had a foothold in the markets you mentioned.

I can see Apple Vision Pro in some niche markets (another commenter mentioned architecture) where Apple is already in the game. But Apple essentially does not exist in industry.
 
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ccachor said:
The Vision Pro is a hardware product that pushes what the best hardware engineers in the world can do. This is Apple's most forward looking platform, and a place of *significant* investment. Vision Pro 2 isn't going to be a speed bump. I'm predicting significant upgrades in the lenses, reality chip, M4/5, as well as a much improved price point. Apple will not be satisfied with selling to the same early adopters. They want a wider market, and they've gained a lot of feedback from one of its most secretive projects. I guarantee Apple will make significant strides in performance, ergonomics, and price. This is a decades long roadmap we're talking about here.
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RemindMe! 5 years ;)
 
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The problem with Apple Vision Pro is that Apple positioned it mainly as a Mac extension for spatial computing, rather than building it into the best VR gaming device it could be. To achieve that, they would have needed to reduce the weight and extend the battery life. Instead, Apple released it heavy and with short battery capacity, meaning most people can’t use it for more than a couple of hours. The weight itself makes it uncomfortable to wear beyond two hours, and on top of that, users who need prescription lenses have to invest an extra $150 or more every year or two—something frustrating for people like me who regularly need new glasses. Couldn’t Apple have built in adjustable optics instead? Even my decades-old SLR camera lets me tweak the diopter with a simple dial.

Apple should have known better. Many AirPods Max users already complained about weight and discomfort over long sessions. I owned a pair for a year but barely managed 20 hours of total use before giving up because of the pressure.

The real issue with Apple these days is that they don’t seem to design with the consumer experience at the center anymore. Steve Jobs excelled at that. When the first iPhone launched, no one thought it would dominate the market, especially given its high price. Yet it reshaped the way we use phones. Today, every premium smartphone costs at least twice as much as the original iPhone. The iPad is still the best tablet around, and even with MacBooks, Apple eventually had to return to the old design and bring back the ports they once removed—because people actually needed them.

Maybe Apple will eventually create glasses more like Meta’s Ray-Ban collaboration. If they did, and priced them around $2,000, I’d consider it—especially if the lenses could automatically adjust to replace my progressive glasses. I want something I can wear comfortably all day, not just for a couple of hours.
 
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Very possible. But I still don't think many will be happy to wear it for long periods continuously.
 
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citysnaps said:
Yet Apple sold 400,000 to 450,000 AVPs in 2024.
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Is that all? I remember seeing so many articles back then that the AVP was definitely a consumer-targeted device. It was going to be supply-constrained, have a waiting list a mile long, and be sold out for eons.

And yet when it was released, they were readily-available and suddenly became a developer kit...
 
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JPack said:
Because it signals commitment to AR/VR. The Vision Pro format (heavy device, hip battery, loner experience) may be a dead end, but it doesn't mean AR/VR is completely useless.

Glasses obviously make more sense but leaving the VP to rot with M2 like a brown banana is bad PR.
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My AirPods Max say hello...😟
 
iPhoneFan5349 said:
Do you guys think Apple has a marketing department or does Phill Schiller names the devices himself? Apple Vision Pro? Like seriously, what an awful name. Sounds like something any person can come up with that hasn’t thought about it more than 2 minutes.
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I agree. Sounds like they asked Siri to come up with the name...lol
 
WarmWinterHat said:
For people who do things alone, sure. I like to watch movies with family and friends, personally.
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I have to note visionOS’s Share Play and social features like Personas are excellent. I’ve watched movies with others remotely. But of course I get what you mean. It’s a speakers vs headphones like problem of ambient output.

Vision Pro is a spatial computer and I think so much emphasis and attention has been given to the Job-To-Be-Done of watching movies is partly because there isn’t enough new software that is truly taking advantage of visionOS’s capabilities yet.

Root of this post was about glasses and glasses are just simply a very different product and tool. VisionOS is for when you wander to focus on rich virtual work, augmented reality glasses affordances are for when your focus is on the real world.
 
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Kottu said:
It is good for designing vehicles, devices etc. Medical fields can really make use of it. Connect with 3D,4D MRI imaging. Possibilities are endless. As a consumer, I don’t see any use for it unless I am a single. If the battery can’t last for 6-8 hours, it is not good enough for professionals either
Click to expand...

Well you can swap the battery out easily enough... however it needs a tiny onboard battery for a minute or 2 so you don't have to shut it down. That seems like a massive miss on Apple's part. Most of the time I am using it I am seated so can charge and use.
 
jbc25 said:
I wanted to give Apple the benefit of the doubt on this product for the longest time and assumed they must know something I don't, but it's really looking grim.

Glasses just make more sense, especially for Apple. I'd really like to know why they thought this particular product was a good idea.
Click to expand...
Augmented Reality Glasses or “smart” glasses or HUD glasses or Display glasses are fundamentally each a different product category. Most of these are not spatial computers which is what visionOS and Vision Pro are.

I do think Apple is interested in Augmented Reality Glasses (like Meta’s Project Orion or Snap’s Spectacles) also “smart” / HUD glasses like Meta Ray-Bans Display but all of these are fundamentally different tools for different jobs in different contexts than Vision Pro and visionOS.
 
jbc25 said:
I wanted to give Apple the benefit of the doubt on this product for the longest time and assumed they must know something I don't, but it's really looking grim.

Glasses just make more sense, especially for Apple. I'd really like to know why they thought this particular product was a good idea.
Click to expand...

They do know something you don't If you can't see why then you clearly have no concept of progression or development.

Their end game IS glasses. They will end up being your phone, Computer and world scale monitor.

They never promoted this as VR as they want the passthrough to be the main mode because in the end there will the real world with projected objects.

But the technology for that is not there yet. Weveguide lenses, Direct projection fibres are in being developed.

But what they need now is use cases and software development and ideas. It started with the iPhone X and the IR cameras and the AR objects in the environment on the iPhone.
 
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Kidseeghost said:
Its funny because they didn’t intend to make it a device like this (medical etc). They wanted to position it as a lifestyle everyday product because that is Apples main target group. (Outside screen, weird looking eyes, people in the keynote wearing it like an Apple Watch etc.). They are not like MS. MS costumer base is mostly enterprises. Apples costumers are individuals who want premium/luxury devices. And Apple knows this. I knew the moment they announced it its not going to be successful as a lifestyle product. Should have been a Mac accessory from day one.
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I agree in that the marketing for Vision Pro has been a bit wide where as HoloLens 2 was squarely marketed for business and enterprise. I think Apple’s marketing especially initial had to both introduce Vision Pro (a Pro tool), new platform and OS (visionOS which in the future will span Pros and consumers) AND spatial computing as a whole which is still a new paradigm for most people. Apple has done a lot of marketing since release promoting enterprise uses of Vision Pro.

I don’t see why you think the front display and EyeSight is a “lifestyle” feature and not something all people in any scenario find it valuable when working together but ok.

Also Vision Pro can be used as a Mac “accessory” if that’s all you want but Apple of course has bigger ambitions for it to be its own platform.
 
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