When Apple Vision Pro was launched in stores earlier this month, the company said that the visionOS App Store would already have more than 600 apps designed specifically for the new headset available on day one. A few days later, Apple has now confirmed that there are more than 1,000 apps built for Vision Pro available on the App Store.
Apple says there are already more than 1,000 apps designed for Vision Pro
The news comes from Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, Greg Joswiak. The executive said in a post on X that the visionOS App Store has now surpassed the mark of 1,000 apps designed to take advantage of the Vision Pro hardware. He also thanked the developers for their “hard work” and for pushing “the boundaries of what is possible.”
In total, the visionOS App Store has more than 1.5 million apps available – but the vast majority of these are iPad apps running in compatibility mode.
“A huge thank you to our developers! Their hard work has already resulted in over 1,000 incredible spatial apps designed specifically for Vision Pro, along with over 1.5 million compatible apps. We’re thrilled to see how they’ll continue to push the boundaries for what’s possible,” said Greg.
There are some controversies surrounding the visionOS App Store. Despite Apple’s efforts to highlight that important apps like Disney+, NBA, and Max from HBO are available for Vision Pro with immersive experiences, there are a lot of important apps that can’t be found on visionOS for now. This includes Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
By default, every iPad app is available on the visionOS App Store and can run in compatibility mode. However, developers can choose not to make their iPadOS apps available to Vision Pro users, and many developers have deliberately chosen to do so.
9to5Mac’s Take
Apple is in a tough spot right now. Despite reaching the 1,000-app mark for Vision Pro, there are no details on how many of these apps are among the most popular ones available on the iOS App Store – but based on what we’ve seen so far, I’d say most of them are not.
Having good indie apps available is certainly a plus for the App Store. But when it comes to new hardware like Vision Pro, there are many users who are expecting to have access to apps that they are already familiar with on other platforms. And right now, Vision Pro lacks most of these apps, which is somewhat disappointing for such an expensive device.
As Apple battles developers by imposing controversial proposals such as the new App Store guidelines in the EU, it’s not hard to imagine why some developers have chosen not to help Apple build the visionOS ecosystem.
We’re yet to see if Vision Pro will become a strong enough platform to motivate developers to bring their apps to it, or if it will fail because it lacks so many standout apps.
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