Technology enthusiasts and Apple fans lined up on Friday at the brand’s American stores to test or buy the Vision Pro, the technology giant’s $3,499 mixed reality headset (augmented and virtual). This is the first major new product from the Apple brand since the arrival of the Apple Watch connected watch nine years ago. Who hopes to represent the ultra-immersive future of computing.
Overall, there were significantly fewer people than when the iPhone was launched in 2007, with sparse lines in Palo Alto and Los Gatos, California, in particular.
Tim Cook in New York
To feel the excitement, you had to go to New York. Tim Cook came to the Apple store on Fifth Avenue to greet the first customers, to applause from the staff. “This is the technology of tomorrow, today,” he told ABC News. “We think we’ve priced it right for now.”
“I can’t wait to try it,” Jose Carlos told AFP with a big smile. “I will use it for work and also when traveling.” “It’s expensive, but I’m willing to pay the price to be among the first and to test application ideas that I have in mind,” adds this young engineer from the Uber platform.
The first mixed reviews
It’s an “impressive product that took many years of work and billions of dollars of investment,” but “even after trying it, I still have no idea who is going to use it and for what,” wrote the New York Times.
Testers say they are fascinated by the image quality and ease of use: just stare at an application and tap your fingers to open or close it. But they are annoyed that the battery is bulky and make fun of the “personas”, these strange photorealistically rendered avatars which represent users during videoconferences.
“The headset has the typical characteristics of a first generation product: it is heavy, the battery runs out quickly and ouch the personas…” summarized Joanna Stern, journalist for Wall Street Journal. “But without these flaws, we can imagine that it will be more pleasant to wear this headset than to hold a phone in front of your face,” she said. “And for working and watching movies, it’s really not bad.” »
Criticized for the lack of applications available on the Vision Pro – their number was recently estimated at 150 – Apple has stepped up and announced on Thursday that it now had more than 600.
“Spatial computing”
The iPhone maker presents the headset as its first foray into the field of “spatial computing”. It allows you to have virtual screens of different sizes around you, to work, chat with friends or watch videos.
However, augmented reality glasses and virtual or mixed reality headsets are not new. Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Apple’s rival in Silicon Valley, has largely contributed to the emergence of this market with its Quest headsets and Ray-Ban connected glasses.
Mark Zuckerberg, the group’s leader, thinks that the “metaverse”, a universe where our physical and digital environments mix, will be the future of the Internet. But many companies, experts and individuals were eagerly awaiting Apple’s first device. Or maybe the second, which will undoubtedly be more affordable.