Vision Pro is Apple’s mixed reality headset. Launched at prices starting at $3,499, Apple Vision Pro has been widely praised for its technologies, but at the same time criticized for its lack of apps and high price. To Hugo Barra, former vice president of Android and head of Oculus at Meta, Apple’s headset is an “over-engineered devkit.”
Is Apple Vision Pro an expensive ‘devkit’?
Barra shared his thoughts on Apple Vision Pro as a product on his personal blog. For those unfamiliar, Hugo Barra is a computer scientist who had a number of roles at Google until taking over as VP of Android in 2012. He joined Facebook (now Meta) in 2017 as head of the Oculus division. He’s now CEO of Detect, a health technology startup.
The executive recognizes that Vision Pro is the “Northstar the VR industry needed.” Calling himself a “VR enthusiast,” Barra says that his team at Meta always said that Apple entering the VR industry would be the best thing to happen to Oculus, as it would push Meta to do its best to improve its headsets.
Now that Vision Pro is a reality, Barra truly believes that Apple has raised the bar by showing something that can “ultimately lead to mass-market consumer demand” when it comes to VR devices. Of course, there’s still a long way to go, and Barra believes that Vision Pro is still a “devkit” that has been put into the hands of consumers who can afford it.
“Because of its heavy weight, Vision Pro has inevitably landed in the world as a high-quality “devkit” designed to capture everyone’s curiosity, hearts & minds with its magic (especially through the voice of enthusiastic tech influencers) while being realistically focused on developers as its primary audience. In other words, the Vision Pro is a devkit that helps prepare the world to receive a more mainstream Apple VR headset that could have product-market fit in 1 or 2 generations.”
Despite this, Barra does see Apple Vision Pro as a promising device that has made mainstream users more interested in VR experiences. In his full article, Barra discusses other technical aspects of the Vision Pro, such as apps, sensors, and the displays, comparing them to other headsets.
Make sure you read the full article here.
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