Just got out of my 15 minute facilitated tour of the Apple Vision Pro at my local Apple Store in Tyson’s Corner. If you haven’t gotten the free demo, it’s definitely worthwhile – particularly if you occasionally wear the CTO title. The experience was exactly what I thought it would be, which is to say that I knew Apple wouldn’t release garbage and I’m pleased to report that their equipment is the first VR/AR setup that has high enough resolution and refresh rates to really put you in the middle of the action. The demo was almost all focused on virtual-reality experiences with hardly any augmented reality, which I attribute to A/R requiring more forethought and programming to make usable but I’m sure those apps will come in time.

Here’s a few initial thoughts:

1. Large Screen TV manufacturers should be worried. Theater owners should sell while they still can.
   
   As other folks have reported, the visual experience of watching movies is better than IMAX from the comfort of your couch. And, I’m sure that game makers are looking forward to delivering on experiences similar to those described in the book “Ready Player One” where one can ultimately act out one of the roles in a movie. I look forward to embracing my inner Marty McFly and, well, every role ever played by Bill Paxton and Bruce Campbell sometime during the next decade. Hail to the king, baby.
   
   
2. The impact on ed-tech will be ginormous
   
   Back in the ancient days of the early 1990’s, students often complained about freshman and sophomore college lectures that they had to endure with 400 of their closest acquaintances. I suppose that we could still rationalize this experience as being helpful in the sense that it got us out of our dorm rooms and enabled us to meet new people, but the same educational value can now certainly be gotten through the Vision Pro’s 3D video playback experience and enhanced through adding interactive widgets. Imagine watching an aeronautical engineering lecture and then suddenly having a virtual rocket engine materialize in front of you that that you can dynamically interact with in real-time? Change the math and watch the behavior of the virtual engine change. For those of us who always needed the answer of how abstract math and science topics could be used in real life, this is the way. Maybe I’ll be able to see the practical applications of calculus… maybe.
   
   
3. Try a vacation before you buy a vacation
   
   The demo has some truly amazing video that aptly demonstrates it can put you in the middle of any environment. But, at the end of the day, being in a scuba video where you’re nose-to-nose with sharks isn’t quite like actually being there. What the tech does do, however, is greatly incentivize us to get out of our comfort zone and actually go visit those places. The Tic-Tok generation will be ALL OVER THIS.
   
   Experiences like driving a car, flying a plane and even launching into space can be easily recorded. This tech will take home video tours to a new level of effectiveness. There will be many, many new technology-driven marketing jobs becoming available.
   
   
4. Drucker’s Law of Consumer Products #6
   
   In order to reach critical mass, any sufficiently advanced consumer technology must have applications that provide better experiences for watching porn and … uh… sports?
   
   I know it. You know it. And you know I know it.
   
   The demo included putting you on the field behind a soccer goal as well as just behind 3rd base. No, that’s not a euphemism you sick bastard.
   
   
5. Introverts are going to love it, and therein lies the problem
   
   Travel without meeting people. Get fully immersed in football and movies. Kill the bad guys and be the hero, or kill the good guys and be the villain. Virtual reality carries a promise of adventure without ever leaving your couch. But if COVID and social media have taught us anything, it’s that shared, in-person experiences are what bind societies together. You’re much more likely to make efforts to understand and empathize with someone’s alternative viewpoint when they’re standing in front of you and much more likely to tear them down in 280 characters on Twitter when they’re not. Being sociable is a use-it or lose-it skill. People (especially Millennials) seem to talk a lot about work/life balance as they stare into their phones, but the real damaging imbalance that exists today is the time spent on-screen/off-screen. And I fear that VR tech is another technology with good intentions that’s ultimate going to drive us further apart as a society.

But we’re just getting started…

I’m hoping to spend a bit more time with the Apple Vision Pro over the next month, focusing on whether/how it can be used to help with general office productivity and data visualization. The creative possibilities for this hardware seem endless. Stay tuned!