Jul 26, 2024
VR/AR Productivity
The Apple Vision Pro headset landed in stores five months ago. Fans cheered the curious guy demos. The world watched with wonder and then everyone stopped talking about it. Reports say sales dipped and Apple slashed production of the headset, but of course, it didn't sell well. This is a personal use, $3500 face computer for watching video. It will not succeed unless something changes. So let's talk about what can change Apple needs to make a cheaper version and that means losing features and we already have a few clues to what Apple might be doing to cut costs. If Apple is making one more vision headset, then here's how it could be different. I'm Bridget Carey and this is one more thing. The Vision Pro headset that launched on February 2nd might be the last super high end model that we see for a while. Apple has reportedly told at least one supplier that it has suspended work on the next iteration of its Pro headset and instead it will continue to work on a more affordable vision product with fewer features. Now the cheaper headset is expected sometime next year. What does a not So pro vision pro look like there are four areas where Apple could switch things up. Let's start with the eyesight feature. It's the illusion of having your eyes appear on a screen. Now to the outside world. This is a signal that you can see the people around you. And it makes the vision pro visually unique, but it's a parlor trick. It's not really your eyes, it's the persona animation, a digital caricature that's playing on a screen and it gives the illusion of depth. Now, maybe there are other ways that you can indicate to someone that you can or cannot see them. Like here's a concept talking to the person and ask if they can see you inside the vision. There is a high end display called micro OLED. It's one of the things that helps Apple's headset stand apart from cheaper headsets from Valve and Meta and it's the kind of tech that's in some of the best televisions you can buy right now. It's arguably the best part of the Vision Pro. But one report suggests Apple might be making a compromise here. A report from the Korean news outlet. The elect says Apple is looking to see if Samsung or LG can make larger panels with a lower resolution. It's reported that Sony supplies the current display tech. Now, I wouldn't want Apple to downgrade the display inside because if you're going to put a TV, on your eyes, it better be the best TV. But it sounds like this is a big way to save on cost if you can get a good picture and your eyes might not notice that big of a difference. The vision pro has a lot of sensors that are tracking motion. But what if some of these features were removed from the headset? And instead we're part of another apple device, a device you already own. Let's consider the Airpod a report from analyst Ming Chi Kuo says future airpods could include infrared cameras. The point of this could be to detect changes in the environment or to be used to detect hand gestures. Right now. The vision pro is controlled with gestures like finger taps and the cameras on the headset are watching for your hand movements. So what if the airpods could do the gesture detection? Instead the Apple watch also can detect a double tap of the fingers. Could the Apple watch sensors sync up to help as a vision pro controller? Of sorts? Of course, it means you better buy an Apple watch and you'd have to always be wearing airpods. It's not ideal for some folks, but it could be a good deal for others. We could take that same concept and apply it to process power. What if the headset needed to be tethered to an iphone or a mac? It's something Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says Apple is considering that way the vision pro can save money on the processing power. If you're going to buy a top of the line iphone Pro or some day, a Mac with an M four chip, why not have it handle some vision Pro work with the phone? You can still walk around and hey, maybe that's how Apple can bring Apple Intelligence features to the vision pro. This is not the end for the Vision Pro. I think a lot of folks expected it to be a rocky ambitious start. Remember though, before the success of the Macintosh, there was the Lisa, the Lisa was not a commercial success and it was very expensive at the time. But what Apple learned from making Lisa shape the Macintosh we have today. So I am sure we're going to see a few visions of the vision and you know, Apple's gonna want to put A I into it A I will be in everything. Hopefully, also the home pod will get A I but that's one more thing for another day. Thanks for watching. Catch You next Friday.