Apple Vision Pro: Insights & Early Reviews Revealing Innovative Opportunities for Creators
How does Apple’s Vision Pro revolutionize the way we consume immersive content? That answer is still being written.
While Vision Pro boasts advanced features that many early adopters are justifiably critical of, this device has the potential to transform the way we interact with digital content. Here in this blog, we’ve curated a few significant reviews from Vision Pro users and uncover the possibilities for developers, impact producers, and immersive content creators by exploring various industry use cases and how this device serves creatives as a new distribution platform and educational space.
GRX Immersive Labs Founder and Storyteller Alton Glass on the impact he projects Vision Pro will have on the market and creators economy: “The use case for me is cross platform storytelling and bridging your audience from 2d into interactive 3d experiences within one ecosystem.”
Alton jumped into an intelligently savvy conversation with Jason Huff (Founder/Developer) in Apple’s Vision Pro to share insights on the device’s promise and potential to make a meaningful difference for creators and developers in various industries.
“You have paying consumers who are willing and paid for the headset and are now waiting for justifiable [content]. Well how do I continually use the headset? What’s going to make me pick up the headset and say, “Man, I wanna go back and check that one thing out that I saw. That’s the big plus there [for creatives]... But as people who have been in the space a long time, we know that entertainment wins. That’s kind of what has driven it all the way to where we are right now. We know that’s the number one thing – entertainment.”
For those interested in the computing power and hardware built inside the Vision Pro, this part’s for you.
Immensely popular web video producer and consumer electronics YouTuber Marques Brownlee gave us everything you need to know about using Vision Pro, from the battery all the way to personas and Face Time. Recognizing that apps are what essentially made the iPhone the popular success that it is, Brownlee asks the same thing to justify a $3-$4,000 price tag. While there are two types of apps (native and compatible), is there that “Killer App” as he calls it?
Says Brownlee, “To me, the killer app of the vision pro isn't just an app - it's actually the ecosystem. And we knew this was coming. The second you log in to the Vision Pro with your Apple ID, immediately it starts pulling all the services and all the stuff that you’re used to from all the Apple devices you already have.” Pretty perfect segue for the mass population of users to be introduced to what apple refers to as “Spatial Computing.”
(More interested in the nuts and bolts? Tech reviews, repairs, and unboxing YouTuber Phone Repair Guru broke the device down to its smallest parts to show us Vision Pro’s inside (literally!).
Here’s our take on additional opportunities provided future generations of Vision Pro:
New Content Distribution for Impact Work
Although Apple won’t reveal return rates, it is known that customers – even the dedicated Apple loyalists – are returning the device to get their $3500 back. As shared from Bloomberg, there are a variety of reasons behind the returns including the device being too heavy and the work features not increasing productivity or efficiency as advertised. Of course, this is the first-generation of the device with expected bugs that will likely be addressed and evolved in future iterations. But there’s still one major area of complaint shared amongst Vision Pro’s early adopters - lack of content.
Opportunity: As former Texas Tesla Inc. supply chain manager Farzad Mesbahi told Bloomberg, “It clearly is the future — but there’s not enough stuff for it to do right now. The apps just aren’t there.” This presents an opportunity for developers and innovators to begin investing in the creation of functional, make-sense apps that actually provide value to the user. Immersive technology like this mixed reality device needs to complement the user experience - not replace it. Applications to couple tv or movie viewing with a way to seamlessly incorporate social sharing as we normally would in traditional spaces. Supplementary s showing behind the scenes, additional footage, or exclusive content only available in the Vision Pro store for sports entertainment would be providing a new valuable touchpoint for a consumer fanbase already shown to demand a more lean-in experience.
Vision Pro presents a new distribution platform for new content creators, particularly those invested in tech for good and social impact. Positive media psychology is a specialized area that emerged to promote the use and development of media technologies that support well-being and human flourishing. Needs, skills, and creativity are necessary to imagine new ways of reaching people and making a difference, for creators and users alike. So the time and place for impact producers to use immersive storytelling to generate empathy, foster civic engagement, and/or implement learning strategies to educate users on a particular social cause, is now.
Industry Use Case – Enhanced Travel and Tourism Experience
Take for example inflight entertainment. The self-proclaimed "premium leisure airline Beond will officially become the world's first to offer Apple's Vision Pro headset to its passengers. Devices will be loaded with the airline’s existing content you’re used to viewing on the seatback tv monitor. Additionally according to Zack Griff from The Points Guy, “Beond is also creating a custom experience that it says will transform your surroundings into a fully immersive backdrop of what you can expect in the Maldives (the airline's main base).”
Opportunity: The travel and tourism industry appears to be a business sector ripe for immersive content. This presents a window of opportunity for travel buffs, novices, and everyone in between, to experience different parts of the world while being educated about the region through cultural immersion. Experiences such as this could inspire travel, and create strategic partnerships between sustainable tourism and XR for good-based developers.
Imagine designing immersive experiences that elicit profound emotional responses and drive real impact in areas like education, entertainment, and therapy. However to make that vision a reality, we need diverse creators with a brave imagination to say, “what if….”
Two things can be true at the same time. The Vision Pro is a technological marvel that pushes the boundaries of extended reality. And there’s still a number of issues that need addressing for future generations to see the mass light of day. This is a space we at GRX will continue closely monitoring and doing our part to educate the dreamers, thinkers, and storytellers on XR tools and encourage them to lead with their imagination.
