Not unsurprisingly Apple’s Vision Pro VR Headset has generated a lot of discussion here at Exploding Phone.

As so often with new products from Apple the Vision Pro might best be described as sophisticated extension of existing technology rather than radical innovation. But do we think the Apple ‘Secret Sauce’ will propel VR headsets from being a bit of a ‘solution looking for a problem’ into a must have gadget and from there to achieving smartphone levels of ubiquity in people’s lives?

One of our Senior Engineers, Damian Wojtczak, summarises his thoughts as follows:
“Well, firstly, what an amazing piece of kit! It absolutely pushes the envelope of what’s possibly with a VR headset, for example, the use of gestures to interact with the system and incredible screen resolution. And this is just Version 1… However it still shares many of the challenges faced by most other headsets out there, principally, it’s too big and you look a bit odd when you’re wearing it. And of course it’s hideously expensive. Another question is whether consumers believe they need what a VR headset can do for them. Assuming Apple continues to invest in this product line we can safely assume that the headsets will get smaller, more comfortable and cheaper, but by how much and how fast. VR Headsets could be sufficiently compelling to induce many people to invest in the technology. However the question remains as to whether technological enhancements in the next few years will be enough to achieve a tipping point leading to widespread adoption. Personally I believe that VR Headsets will become as successful for Apple at the iPhone. But I’m also pretty sure that a headset Apple sells by the millions will look and feel very different from the one launched in 2024.”

So, as an organisation considering partnering with Exploding Phone to use Apple’s VR Headset to address a business challenge what should you do? Clearly the practical applications for a $3,500 headset are very different to those at a headset retailing at sub $1,000. If your organisation has a requirement that can support the development costs and has a sufficient community of users to benefit from the solution, then, yes, let’s talk about a project. More pragmatically however we’d suggest you wait for V2.0 of Apple Vision Pro to hit the market before getting too invested in the technology. But once an Apple headset starts to look more Ray Ban or even just a bit Joe 90 then the world starts to look like a very different place...