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News on June 9, Financial Times reporter Patrick McGee recently shared his experience and feelings after trying on Apple Vision Pro for half an hour. He believes that the service provided by Vision Pro is amazing, but Apple still does not let consumers have that "must buy" feeling.
Vision Pro is Apple's ambition to open "spatial computing" after 7 years of research and development, and after its official release on June 6, Beijing time, it instantly detonated the network and caused countless heated discussions. People can't wait to know its "top" experience: Is there a sense of vertigo oppression? What level of interaction can be achieved? How smooth are page transitions?
Mikeney answered some of the questions, he experienced hand-eye voice interaction, watched 3D videos taken by the headset, felt the virtual digital human during the call... In the end, he concluded: "It was fun to watch movie clips, check photos and make phone calls, and I also tried reading PDF documents, and I was pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the picture and the comfort of reading." But Apple still faces significant challenges in convincing mainstream audiences to use it. ”
First, with your eyes or fingers, you can control the equipment
Apple has led countless industry changes, and this time, Apple also announced that the $3,500 (about 25,000 yuan) Vision Pro can mark the beginning of "spatial computing".
However, the capital market does not seem to buy it, and after the release of Vision Pro, Apple's stock price fell by 0.76% due to factors such as excessive selling prices. Even so, experiencers such as McNee have given high marks to the features of this headset.
In terms of usage, Vision Pro does not need to use a controller controller, but controls the device through the movement of eyes and fingers. Click a button with your right hand and a page similar to the iPhone home screen will appear; With a glance at a photo or icon, then pinch your finger "double-tap" to scroll through the photo and zoom in with a swipe gesture, like a giant smartphone projected in front of you.
Although Meta has also added gesture interaction control to its headset, the real experience is not smooth, and sometimes it is impossible to capture gestures.
Second, talk to virtual people and be scared and scream by digital dinosaurs
The device can also switch between VR (virtual reality) and AR. This switching is partly automatic, "if someone enters the picture, their image will slowly appear and gradually become clearer"; Wearers can also switch manually using a watch face similar to the Apple Watch.
Plus, the built-in 3D camera can take photos or videos, allowing users to capture, relive and immerse themselves in their favorite memories. Sitting around the fire with friends or watching the hyper-real kids blow out their birthday candles surprised Gene Munster, a manager at investment firm Deepwater Asset: "3D memory will change the way we remember things." ”
3D cameras can also film events such as sports games and studio concerts, allowing the wearer to feel like they are there, but in the long run, people may be reluctant to buy tickets to see the event in person, which is also a challenge for the ticketing market.
The front screen of the headset called "EyeSight" prevents the wearer from being "cut off from the world." People around can clearly see the wearer's eyes, as if the screen is completely transparent.
Vision Pro's "Persona" feature also allows people to make video calls through virtual digital humans. McGee During the experience, an Apple employee appeared in a movable window through a FaceTime call, she also wore a Vision Pro, but her entire face could be seen, and Persona's image was very realistic, and could even give reactions such as moving eyes and smiling.
"To my embarrassment, I was so scared when I saw a dinosaur emerge from the wall of the demo room and tried to bite my hand," McNee said. In the end, I was ridiculed all day because of this incident. ”
The precision of the Vision Pro has surprised not only many industry experts, but also other VR companies. Rony Abovitz, founder and former CEO of AR (augmented reality) glasses maker Magic Leap, said: "Because Apple raised the bar, other VR companies are in trouble. They just challenged companies like HTC, Samsung and Meta, and Apple outperformed them all at once. ”
At WWDC 23, Apple ambitiously announced a "new era" of "spatial computing," hinting that Vision Pro could revolutionize the AR/VR industry, just as the iPhone did to mobile computing.
Interestingly, Apple's AR/VR vision is in stark contrast to the "metaverse" envisioned by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and filled with virtual characters.
However, it is Apple that makes the metaverse no longer far away, and even people have reason to believe that the metaverse is likely to be what Apple shows. Sam Cole, CEO of immersive fitness app FitXR, believes that perhaps there used to be a lot of people who thought the metaverse was just an impossible and distant concept, but today, Apple has changed the way these people think in a natural, clear, and understandable way.
Some analysts argue that the Vision Pro doesn't really offer an AR experience, because the real-world environment that the Vision Pro sees is rendered in real time through the camera, rather than having digital images superimposed on the real world. But that distinction may not matter, as Vision Pro's real-world feedback is only 12 milliseconds late, 8 times faster than the blink of an eye, and the brain has a hard time distinguishing the screen inside the headset from the real environment.
Third, it is powerful, but it faces three major challenges
Although the Vision Pro is powerful and has won the plaudits of many critics, Apple still faces many challenges.
First of all, what kind of core problems can this headset solve for consumers? That is, it may also lack a killer app that convinces consumers that they really need a device like this.
iPod can be convenient for those who want to listen to music on the go, iPhone can facilitate people's social and Internet access... In McNee's view, Vision Pro has not touched consumers' "pain points".
In addition, Meta considers fitness experience to be the killer app for its headset Quest, but in Apple's promotion of Vision Pro, it obviously does not consider fitness experience. This may be because Apple engineers are considering the potential risk of user bumping into VR mode.
Second, the question of comfort and fit remains questionable. Although McNee didn't share much on this issue, some users thought it would press their noses when worn.
While Apple has spent a long time touting the Vision Pro's ergonomics, like its headband and sunshade pressed against the face, will users feel comfortable? To what extent is wearing it more widely accepted? It remains to be seen.
IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo was so pleased with the Vision Pro when he tried it on that he even gave the product a "ready to sell" rating, but he wasn't sure if he would wear it socially.
For example, will people resist wearing the headset because it messes up their hair? How can a user carry an external battery pack without a pocket? These are unanswered questions.
Finally, are external developers ready?
Whether outside developers are interested in investing time and money in building content for Vision Pro, especially since the headset is expensive and may not appeal to many consumers for a while?
Disney showed how its apps, such as Disney Plus, appear in Vision Pro, but most of the examples seem conceptual at the moment.
Apple gave examples of apps that small developers are working on, such as those that could help designers collaborate on Formula One cars or industrial manufacturing devices.
Apple also said it is working with game software development provider Unity to help developers make their apps work with Vision Pro.
However, Vision Pro won't be available until early next year, and millions of developers still have months to build content. Once they create amazing applications, Vision Pro may have the potential to exceed anyone's expectations.
Conclusion: The experience effect is gorgeous, and the use scenario needs to be clear
Although the Vision Pro trial is only 30 minutes, it does bring many surprises, whether it is the smooth page switching between gestures and eyeball control, the casual shuttle between the virtual and real worlds, or the way memories are captured, stored and reproduced.
Two years ago, the concept of "meta-universe" exploded, and technology companies such as Meta, ByteDance, and Tencent have laid out XR (extended reality, including AR, VR, MR) industries, and when the popularity of "meta-universe" has dropped significantly, they have adjusted their businesses. Today, Apple's Vision Pro headset has exploded, once again bringing a large amount of traffic to the XR industry, but under the boom, it is necessary to further clarify the core usage scenarios of the headset before the official release.
来源：Financial Times、The Information