Vision Pro Future Uncertain as All Headset Development Is Seemingly Paused

[Arran]

GoPro and DJI have much better offerings for less than 500$…

UPD: Meta RayBan too. And I have actually seen many bloggers using them for live PoV footage

How do you feel in the presence of vloggers/streamers broadcasting you live, without your consent?

I kept running into one earlier this week when I was out shopping. I found it obnoxious. For starters, the guy was LOUDLY blabbing to his audience which was hugely intrusive in the quiet store. After a couple of encounters with his raybans pointed straight at me (white recording light ON) I found myself avoiding him because I didn’t want to be broadcast live as someone else’s “content”.

So although some think glasses will prevail over headsets because they’re easier for the wearer, I’m not sure society will tolerate such an uncontrolled invasion of privacy.

 

[turbineseaplane]

So although some think glasses will prevail over headsets because they’re easier for the wearer, I’m not sure society will tolerate such an uncontrolled invasion of privacy.

I think some folks are going to find assaults happening.

(not condoning it, but I understand it)

This is like a WAY worse version of people flying drones over your backyard.
Unsurprisingly, the shotguns come out in many parts of the country.

 

[BNBMS]

Just before the arrival of the usual uninformed flock of comments about how "nobody wants a VR headset", remember that Meta sold more Quest 3 headsets last year at Christmas than Xbox's AND Playstations combined.

While VR headsets sales will never get to iPhone-like levels of popularity for now , who wouldn't want to achieve Xbox/Playstation level of sales ? The only thing that is killing the Vision is the insanely crazy price , and the weight.

I have a Quest 3, vastly inferior tech, but almost 8 times cheaper, and quite a bit lighter than the VP.

It's also made by MetaFacebook, one of the most horrible companies on the planet, and the Quest basically exists to harvest even more intimate and private personal data to sell it to the highest bidder. Just this fact makes me want Apple to persist in releasing the Vision Air faster so that I can get rid of the Quest.

The VR market shouldn't be a monopoly left to a surveillance company.

Meta Has Sold Nearly 20 Million Quest Headsets, But Retention Struggles Remain

Meta has sold nearly 20 million Quest headsets, but the company continues to struggle with keeping customer using VR. According to a report by The Verge, citing an internal Meta presentation held today, the company has sold nearly 20 million Quest headsets. This likely includes Quest 1, Quest 2...

www.roadtovr.com

Totally false info.

The VR market for consumer is still a huge failure even for Meta. Yeah, Meta sold a lot of them but guess what? People who bought Meta Quest series AREN'T using it. This proves that high sales does NOT mean it's successful. Also, they dont even make any profits from selling Quests, they are more focusing on creating their own ecosystem which they still failing.

And yet, Apple chose the worst way to sell Vision Pro by making it the most expensive consumer XR headshot. Again, VR/AR/XR markets for consumer is far from being profitable as people still doubt about its usage while Microsoft and some companies focusing on professional or B2B markets succeed because VR/AR/XR devices are extremely niche from the beginning.

It's time to accept the fact that Vision Pro is a failure from the beginning and they will never succeed as the market itself is being hostile or poor with VR/AR/XR contents even in 2025. Hate to admit it? Tell me which company is being successful in consumer markets? NONE.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Totally false info.

The VR market for consumer is still a huge failure even for Meta. Yeah, Meta sold a lot of them but guess what? People who bought Meta Quest series AREN'T using it. This proves that high sales does NOT mean it's successful. Also, they dont even make any profits from selling Quests, they are more focusing on creating their own ecosystem which they still failing.

THANK YOU!

I'm so tired of Meta pumping out endless hype and PR and it's all BS.
Don't buy into it folks.

Hopefully Apple doesn't either, even on the glasses.

Make something that's compelling on your own internal metrics, testing, features, offering, privacy concerns, value, etc... and don't release it unless it's actually a good product and implementation.

 

[rosuna]

The AppleVision is done. There are 3 reasons:

1. It is very uncomfortable.

2. It is very expensive.

3. There is no user case / Killer app for it (it is a solution looking for a problem).

Steve Jobs never would have allowed it to reach the market. It makes no sense at all.

The SmartGlasses is a very different thing. A real mass product, a true wearable and part of Apple's ecosystem.

 

[Arran]

I think some folks are going to find assaults happening.

(not condoning it, but I understand it)

This is like a WAY worse version of people flying drones over your backyard.
Unsurprisingly, the shotguns come out in many parts of the country.

View attachment 2566619

Indeed. Going to the grocery store shouldn’t be warfare.

On the drive home I found myself idly wondering if I could buy a wearable signal-jammer in future. Or maybe a wearable vision system of my own that identifies rayban wearers and shoots a laser right into their camera sensor

 

[rosuna]

It's time to accept the fact that Vision Pro is a failure from the beginning and they will never succeed as the market itself is being hostile or poor with VR/AR/XR contents even in 2025. Hate to admit it? Tell me which company is being successful in consumer markets? NONE.

100% agree.

 

[turbineseaplane]

The AppleVision is done. There are 3 reasons:

1. It is very uncomfortable.

2. It is very expensive.

3. There is no user case / Killer app for it (it is a solution looking for a problem).

Steve Jobs never would have allowed it to reach the market. It makes no sense at all.

The SmartGlasses is a very different thing. A real mass product and part of Apple's ecosystem.

Good list -- #3 probably should be #1, or at least it should have been for Apple.

If we recall, there was a bit of scuttlebutt that Tim forced this thing out over protestations of many who worked on it that, presumably, recognized it wasn't something ready for public release.

 

[rosuna]

Good list -- #3 probably should be #1, or at least it should have been for Apple.

If we recall, there was a bit of scuttlebutt that Tim forced this thing out over protestations of many who worked on it that, presumably, recognized it wasn't something ready for public release.

It will never be ready for public release because of #3.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It will never be ready for public release because of #3.

And to me this is the #1 reason the company needs someone other than Cook at this point.

A better product person would have realized what AVP was (or was not) and made the right move there.

Cook chose poorly.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Or build/buy a PC for games and slowly question why you need two computers as the mac sees less and less use over time, before eventually reverting to a single PC that does everything you need instead of the one that does some things better, but doesn't do everything...

Holy crap. Sad to say this describes my Mac journey over the last 14 years perfectly. I previously championed and talked up the hell out of Macs since 1993, even convincing employers to get me Macs for work. But in the end, when there is nothing I need to do that I can’t do on a PC (for $less) while the Mac is limiting in some areas, the answer becomes pretty clear.

 

[Macalicious2011]

The AppleVision is done. There are 3 reasons:

1. It is very uncomfortable.

2. It is very expensive.

3. There is no user case / Killer app for it (it is a solution looking for a problem).

Steve Jobs never would have allowed it to reach the market. It makes no sense at all.

The SmartGlasses is a very different thing. A real mass product, a true wearable and part of Apple's ecosystem.

Because apple have sold very few, no business will waste the salary of 2-3 developers at $75k per year to develop or maintain an app thet might only generate $10k in annual revenue.

A nice value add would be if it supported windows. Then I could somewhat justify it as a gaming VR set.

 

[turbineseaplane]

A nice value add would be if it supported windows. Then I could somewhat justify it as a gaming VR set.

This is always the problem with Apple it seems.

Anyone reasonably objective and immersed in any of these spaces would have told them flat out, if you're going to do VR you have either:

A. Go all in on partnerships and content and especially gaming

or

B. Make sure it can somehow work with Windows gaming & maybe even with console gaming .. but especially plug into as much content as possible.

The only thing driving any meaningful numbers in VR is gaming.
Has always been true, and continues to be true.

(it's not really even that meaningful, but I'm operating from an assumption of their desire to do VR at all)

 

[Circa1984]

Here’s an idea, scrap all the time effort, money, resources put into projects like this headset and the failed car
initiative and launch a new M5 iMac 27” and a more reasonably priced high quality monitor that pairs well with the mini & studio … you know, the products that have sold before and that people need/want. A larger sized iMac would once again find its way into school labs/classrooms, music studios, and creative departments … many that have since being replaced with Dell, HP and Lenovo PCs - why doesn’t Apple get this??!!

 

[turbineseaplane]

Here’s an idea, scrap all the time effort, money, resources put into projects like this headset and the failed car
initiative and launch a new M5 iMac 27” and a more reasonably priced high quality monitor that pairs well with the mini & studio … you know, the products that have sold before and that people need/want. A larger sized iMac would once again find its way into school labs/classrooms, music studios, and creative departments … many that have since being replaced with Dell, HP and Lenovo PCs - why doesn’t Apple get this??!!

Their success with the iPhone, as well as the ever growing "services" revenue, has boxed the entire company into a corner.

Literally nothing they can do (at least nothing obvious) will make "number go up" enough.

It should be noted that "services" revenue is somewhat at risk of flattening given all the jurisdictions around the world pushing back on Apple taking onerous (some would argue fairly unjustified in amount) cuts of all the revenue flowing across iOS/iPadOS.

 

[Velin]

I'd like one to use as a monitor. Just a way to have a massive screen(or many) in the office or everywhere I go, especially a plane. By being a monitor for other devices, it would make the device simpler and less expensive. I think this would be a product I could get behind.

I thought so too.

Is there a current high-resolution OLED pair of goggles or headset that can serve this purpose at a better price?

 

[Rogifan]

Meta doing something ≠ "the future"

We’re all about to be in wearable hell

I’m rapidly running out of body parts to do my job.

www.theverge.com

I think Apple should make some glasses, yes.

I'm not at all convinced we are all going to wear them all day.
(speaking as an RX glasses wearer myself)

The Verge is such click-bait nonsense. Nobody is being forced to wear smart watches, smart rings, glasses, VR headsets. If Verge staff are complaining about having to test/review all these things all I have to say is boo-hoo.

 

[turbineseaplane]

The Verge is such click-bait nonsense. Nobody is being forced to wear smart watches, smart rings, glasses, VR headsets. If Verge staff are complaining about having to test/review all these things all I have to say is boo-hoo.

"The Verge" is not one thing.
Different authors have different takes and inclinations.

It's a mistake to just dismiss anything written there, by anyone, as you're doing here.

 

[BNBMS]

The Verge is such click-bait nonsense. Nobody is being forced to wear smart watches, smart rings, glasses, VR headsets. If Verge staff are complaining about having to test/review all these things all I have to say is boo-hoo.

Wearing a huge device on your head is a different story.

 

[hugodrax]

Hard to believe Apple would develop such a high profile product and drop it completely due to slight competitive pressure. Glasses are immensely useful, in particular, for people that want to record video of their personal action, like kitchen workers or other workers, but it seems Vision Pro would be more useful to more people as a media consumption device.

It was a major misallocation of capital. When it was announced I knew it was dead on arrival. How is it these Ivy League educated CEOs unable to see this?

No one wants to wear a big heavy expensive goggle that solves no problem that needs solving with one. I hope they finally end this waste of time and capital and re-deploy it back into making MacOS better since Tahoe is a big mess.

 

[tennisproha]

Vision Air is so incredibly misguided. A 1.0 project doesn’t need a cheaper version, it needs to be made better and garner a bigger ecosystem, and show it has staying power before can be fragmented.

AR glasses are an entirely different line. It’s like stopping work on iPhone to make the iPad lol. Whoever runs this space seems a bit lost.

 

[Arran]

The AppleVision is done. There are 3 reasons:

1. It is very uncomfortable.

2. It is very expensive.

3. There is no user case / Killer app for it (it is a solution looking for a problem).

Steve Jobs never would have allowed it to reach the market. It makes no sense at all.

The SmartGlasses is a very different thing. A real mass product, a true wearable and part of Apple's ecosystem.

I don’t know about #1. Reports are mixed and I haven’t tried one myself.

I agree with #2. I could easily afford one and I live near several apple stores I’ve visited many times since AVP was released, but I haven’t even bothered to try one because the price is too high and I don’t want to be tempted.

#3 is blocked by #2. Killer apps or use cases can be ‘discovered’ after a product is released. The product just needs to be out there so the huge community of end-users can experiment and discover innovative ways to apply it.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It was a major misallocation of capital. When it was announced I knew it was dead on arrival. How is it these Ivy League educated CEOs unable to see this?

No one wants to wear a big heavy expensive goggle that solves no problem that needs solving with one. I hope they finally end this waste of time and capital and re-deploy it back into making MacOS better since Tahoe is a big mess.

Yep.

Anyone being objective knew it at the time it was revealed. DOA.

For some reason we have people still thinking the Apple of yesteryear is the one of today.

The company Apple is now, would never come up with the original iPhone, as one example.

I really question their ability to come up with ground breaking new products and/or categories.
It's not just their size, but specifically their leadership and what gets prioritized now from a business standpoint.

They try to walk, talk and act like old Apple (of 10-15 years ago+) - particularly in marketing ... but that doesn't really mean anything beyond the words.

 

[xxFoxtail]

I would have loved to at least try one. I’ve had an Oculus Quest in the past, it was fun until it wasn’t. It became a dust collector until I sold it. That was only a couple hundred dollars, I can't imagine spending $3000+ on something that may not appeal to me a couple months after purchase.

 

[Arran]

This is always the problem with Apple it seems.

Anyone reasonably objective and immersed in any of these spaces would have told them flat out, if you're going to do VR you have either:

A. Go all in on partnerships and content and especially gaming

or

B. Make sure it can somehow work with Windows gaming & maybe even with console gaming .. but especially plug into as much content as possible.

The only thing driving any meaningful numbers in VR is gaming.
Has always been true, and continues to be true.

(it's not really even that meaningful, but I'm operating from an assumption of their desire to do VR at all)

So true. Reminds me of the original iPod. I desperately needed and wanted one but it didn’t play with Windows. It was Mac only (FireWire at that) so I bought sucky windows-compatible flash and HDD mp3 players instead.

When Jobs finally released iPod for Windows I bought a FireWire card for my PC and became a repeat Apple customer.