A young autistic man and I are friends. We play tennis together as part of a cardio workout. Today, I told him about my new Apple Vision Pro. He began one of his rambling monologues, that often run through the entire hour of our workout together. But in between his riffing on Star Wars and Princess Leah being his step mother, he said, “But the real life is here. You can’t do this,” he said, gesturing to the tennis court, “In virtual reality.”

Coming Up for Air on AR and VR

A few notes on the Apple Vision Pro. It is an amazingly powerful device with a well-orchestrated “spatial computing” environment that straps on to your head. It’s as close to “jacking in” as we’ve got. Immersive content, however, is thin. It is amazing and slightly overwhelming inside the AVPro, when a t-rex pokes it’s snout in your face and takes a deep breath, apparently trying to decide if it wants to eat you or defend you from the t-rex sneaking up behind. VR is going to be huge for AVPro commerce. Today, there is simply not that much “good stuff” to get jacked about.

I’ve used Apple’s ADVENTURE as one example of massively beautiful VR as well as a handful of “h-fk” moments. It is 9 minutes long. Apple has produced several other immersive programs that are visually stunning. The AVPro shows itself to be ready and willing to rip your mind wide open, but the content is not there… Yet. Yes, I know, Disney+ is streaming a number of movies, including the original Avatar, in immersive (adapted) VR. And AppleTV has a handful of movies adapted to the AVPro. But, nothing compares to the Apple-produced “demos.”

That’s sort of how the AVPro feels: like a demo VR/AR headset. At this price point, I’m sure the “market” for AVPro-specific content is at least a year out. Who is going to put a million dollars into developing a piece of content for 200,000 potential customers? Today, the answer is Apple only. But give the AVPro a year to establish a base of users, let Apple release an Apple Vision Plus and Apple Vision E, grow the potential market to a million or so potential customers, and the content development track should be approaching viability.

There’s no way for a game development team or a non-Apple movie team to make immersive content at scale. When I called Apple Business about acquiring 10 AVPros for a development team I was told, “There are no plans to offer bulk sales at this point.” Today, if you want an AVPro you can buy 2 units per person. With Apple’s generous interest-free financing on the Apple Card, it is conceivable that I could procure my 10 AVPros using myself and four other employees. That idea is a bit premature.

AVPro Gaming

There are also a handful of stunning games for the AVPro. Again, the list is thin. There are some classics: Cut the Rope and Fruit Ninja are standouts. And then a handful of gobbledygook. And a Game Master platform with Chess, Solitaire, Hearts, and Battleship. I have not played all of the games, yet. But, it is not going to take long for me to exhaust both immersive video, adapted 3-d, and games on the AVPro. I am going to be disappointed when I run out of AVPro-enhanced content. The gaming is clearly where the AVPro will live or die in the next few years. I’d be surprised if Apple doesn’t open up some massive incentives to get a dev team up with 10 AVPros and a lot of tech support. If the content does not flow (a Dune metaphor) the AVPro will wither and die. Look at META’s AV platforms. Games and blah blah blah.

AVPro Hangover

When you come out of your AVPro environment, it’s a bit disorienting. (I did not personally find the VR/AR experience to be jarring.) The real world, my living room for example, doesn’t quite sparkle the way it does through the AR power of the AVPro. And using your eye glances and finger pinch for selection and clicking (so cool in the AVPro world) is hard to stop. As I type this, I am still looking and trying to click “save” with my eyes. The world of reality is a bit more limited, but also a bit more stable and comforting.

My friend on the tennis court was right. There is no VR experience that is going to be as immersive and full as actually playing tennis in real life. On the VR side, I doubt I would ever brave a slackline over a 2,000-foot fjord either. And with the AVPro the view is almost perfect. So vibrant and real. And swinging your head around to look as your helicopter flies over the amazing scenery, is what I now lovingly refer to as a h-fk moment.

My girlfriend laughed at me as I stood in her living room, stunned in awe at the Nordic view. There are moments when you just want to stop time and look around. (That could be a future AR enhancement.) In the 9-minute movie, there is plenty to look around at. I’m sure I will revisit Adventure and the amazing Faith Dickey, our slacklining madwoman. Fifteen minutes later (the intial “guest setup” and orientation takes a bit of time) she was shouting “fk no!” at the experience. Thus, I coined the “Holy Fk” moment, now abbreviated to h-fk.

There’s a lot to appreciate with the AVPro. The hype is worth the experience. The price tag is going to keep the market pretty small, this year. Don’t expect them to be discounted by Christmas. Apple knows how to milk the high-priced versions as far as they can. The AVPro is worth the wait and the money. The content however, and the idea that I’m going to do my work inside the AVPro is a bit sci-fi at the moment. I will give the virtual computing experience a go in the coming week, but I really like my Macbook Pro. And I like reading books on paper. And getting on the tennis court, ski slopes, or hot tub. Those reality experiences are not going to be replaced by the AVPro or any more powerful augmented reality device.

Reality is already full-bandwidth. Virtual reality can take you places you’ve never been. Places you never want to go. And places that never or no longer exist. We’ve got a lot of adventure ahead in both reality and virtual reality. Let’s see where this journey takes us over the next 24 months. If Dune 2 was released in AVPro immersion on March 1st it would be amazing. But, it’s not going to happen. Sure, I can watch it on my AVPro via AppleTV+, but it’s not the same thing as watching Faith Dickey put her strong and distressed bare feet on a nylon slackline above the sparkling river thousands of feet below.

There is no mention after any of the Apple-immersive shows about future episodes. That’s a bit frustrating. Like saying to my friends, “Okay, I’ve got this F1 car, but no track to drive it on.”

The AVPro is going to change everything we know about entertainment and computing. The time horizon for that event, however, is several years off.

Check out our new site AVPRO.FUN to get the latest on the Apple Vision Pro.

John McElhenney — let’s connect online
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