FWIW, it appears that Apple themselves don't see it as that. They are focusing on consumption for the initial release, but there are clear plans to bring "full" macos apps to Vision Pro.
They haven't released everything, but what you need to know is in the category they're placing AVP: computer. They refer to it as a computer, repeatedly. Not a mobile device. And, all of their computers run Xcode. I would be very surprised if we don't hear more about that by next year.
I was suspicious that they are stupid enough to think that this cannibalizing Macbook sales is a valid reason to gimp it like they do the iPad.
However, this tech (AR/VR) is much much bigger than traditional computing and is going to replace the aforementioned and more.
So I sincerely hope that I can do development, pull up a terminal, an so on within the device. That's going to be extremely important I think to use this as a remote working machine (which was my hope for years).
Commercial consumer VR has been available for the better part of a decade now and this doesn't seem even close to happening.
Price is too high, features too few, distinct advantages under compelling, and ergonomics too nomic ... until they aren't.
In other words, its a big change of form and function, not to mention the physics tradeoffs of these products, so it makes sense that the right combo is taking a while to fall into place.
If Apple customers, who have the shiny shells to shell out, fall in love with their devices, that will mean a lot.
You just described the iPhone I.
but I'm sure I'll be downvoted into oblivion for daring question apple
Creators can use the Vision Pro as their Mac's display, and/or run Office directly on Vision Pro.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-vision-pro-can-be-used-...
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23749947/apple-vision-pro-...
this will be so annoyingly fiddly to set up, nobody is going to use it on a regular basis
why would somebody buy a "pro" device that only lets them VNC into their laptop?
The SimulaVR can't even run Office natively, right? The hobbyists who purchase it will need to use LibreOffice or run Office until emulation, correct?
In contrast, Vision Pro users will be able to run Microsoft Office natively, with an interface optimized for the device.
Where we don't disagree: For you and other folks who need a literal desktop (nosetop?) PC, SimulaVR is clearly the answer.
Luckily LG and Meta and Samsung and Google are not playing around and will force Apple's hand with the AVP or overtake Apple entirely.
In the WWDC demo video, setting it up went like this:
Look at your Mac, and its desktop pops up in a new AR window.
TUNE IN FOR OUR FULL REPORT TONIGHT AT 11
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office#Mobile_versio...
I see the vision pro 3-5 years from now being part of anyone's workflow that currently uses 3+ screens. And I don't see how this kickstarter competes. So just arguing "yeah but apple din't think of ..." is not encouraging.
1. The passive vs active framing applies primarily to non-Pro iPads. I don't think it can be reasonably argued the $3k Vision Pro is attempting to cannibalize low end iPads. iPad Pros are very different beasts that are designed for a particular type of creative output, and are very capable general purpose computing devices now.
2. There's no particular incentive to cannibalize iPad over Mac, its hard to fathom what dimension that makes sense on. They're happy to cannibalize any product, but their main MO is 'look what cool shit we can do with the latest tech' and Vision Pro is today's version of that. Apple is demonstrably way more interested in building out iOS/iPadOS and we've seen that over the past 10 years, to the point Mac users had to basically revolt to get attention.
3. Of course Vision Pro is based on iPad ecosystem, as its a far more modern set of conventions better suited to mixed modal input than Mac. That isn't a reflection of VP's purpose, but of engineering and design realities - it's far easier to grow iPad/iOS into a top tier spatial computing OS and ecosystem.
While MacOS is wonderful, it's really a product of a particular conception of computing, and shoehorning a 40 year old desktop OS paradigm into entirely new input modalities and ergonomic contexts makes little sense. The puck isn't going anywhere new, the desktop OS modality is baked. Apps will need to adapt to the wondrous new capabilities and constraints of the platform.
Looking at your presentation [1] it's clear the ergonomics are going to be a sticking point, which is a combined hardware & app ecosystem problem: the novelty of windows everywhere bumps up against the human factors / ergonomic fatigue constraints of moving one's head around around more than a few degrees (and whatever you do, don't optimize for looking up!), and app windows with tiny UI elements are going to be similarly fatiguing and unable to adapt to the promise and limitations in accuracy of gaze tracking.
There's a reason WinCE's desktop OS paradigms failed in PDAs whereas iOS succeeded - you need to reinvent the experience when you move modalities. I would argue the exact same thing will happen in AR/VR: sticking with a desktop OS paradigm is a losing proposition.
Just my 2c. Personally I really want to see a variety of offerings and possibilities in the market but I also want them to be based on sound reasoning and approach, which I go into a bit in this essay on category-defining products [2].
I think you've nailed it here. I never thought of it in those terms before, but now that I see it, it's obvious.
It reminds me of the (probably apocryphal) story of Henry Ford saying that his customers didn't want cars - they wanted faster horses. I think there's something analogous here. If all you are offering is a Linux desktop in VR, you're making faster horses.
When I think about where a novel new VR mode is going to come from, it's either going to be Apple or a research team at a liberal arts college. Technologists can really only solve half the problem.
They are specifically designing a VR-based window manager here. And it's linux and a community of hackers, and open source. I think you'll see community imitations and tweaks and improvements on the apple formula as an option almost immediately.
The Vision Pro is based on their iOS (iPad/iPhone) ecosystem for their 2D apps, so you won't be able to use powerhouse office apps. It seems instead more geared towards the passive consumption of information, entertainment, and casual gaming, whereas we're trying to build something that can realistically replace a (Linux) laptop.
I'm not sure what Apple is thinking strategically, but they're structurally incentivized to cannibalize their iPad sales over their macbook sales (since their iPads are their weakest product in their lineup in terms of sales).
[1] https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=36326677