My Apple Vision Pro Journey, Part 4 : Where do we go from here?
My last three blog posts focussed on the good stuff; this week, I want to discuss some of the more negative sides of the Apple Vision Pro and my opinion on the future of the device.
Please note that my blog represents my personal opinion and not necessarily that of my Employer.
Sharing the Device
We cannot expect a household to buy an Apple Vision Pro for every member, nor will any Enterprise or Team buy a device. per employee. To accelerate adoption Apple need to consider the fact that these devices need to be shareable.
For me, my biggest complaint is around sharing the device. Apple clearly state that the Vision Pro is the most personal device yet. I do understand that the Vision Pro experience is highly personal and has to be tailored to the user however I do not see these as barriers to enabling sharing, they are just opportunities to improve the device and the software to enable sharing. This problem is not limited to the Vision Pro, though this device introduces some additional challenges. The Mac is a shareable computer, you can have multiple accounts on it, and each user can log on to it and be presented with their own experience. MacOS (formerly known as OS X) is the foundational OS to all other Apple Devices use.
When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone
…he took pride in saying "..the iPhone runs OS X”
Why have Apple not enabled multiple user logins on any other device? Some would say, well, an iPhone is associated to a personal phone number, or an iPad is associated to a user’s iCloud account. When we had landlines, we had one for the home, rarely did a family have multiple land lines within a home, one for each member. Apple customers need to be able to choose whether the device is personal, or if its shared whether between a family or within an Enterprise Group or Team. I work for a company with Shift Workers, contractors and multi skilled teams, sharing devices is critical.
This is a problem that Apple need to solve, Guest Mode is not enough and even the improvements in Guest Mode that come with VisionOS 2 does not take us closer to any type of solution here. I would have no problem of having a set of light shield’s, lenses and headbands per employee, if the device itself is sharable. Personally I don’t see any problem here that Apple is not able to resolve. All that being said, the problems related to sharing a device is not limited to the Vision Pro, its also a problem with iPads. Apple do allow some level of sharing on the iPad however it does not go deep enough into the OS (for example security certificates are still processed at device level and not user level) so the features are not usable. To work around this issue for iPads we use a shared account; but this is far from ideal.
Video Capture of an experience on the Vision Pro
My worst day at work over the last few weeks was spent capturing video of an experience on the Vision Pro!
Over the last three weeks I have been working with our team to build an App for the Vision Pro to demo to people at my employer. I was so proud of the App we built in such a short space of time, and our intention was to demonstrate this live to key people in the organisation I work for. A live demo is always a risk, and considering the importance of the audience we wanted to have a video of the App experience just in case anything went wrong! Simple I thought….. No, anything but.
First of all we tried the inbuilt screen capture capability of the device itself. However because of the Foveated Rendering, the resulting video was blurry, only in focus where the eyes were looking at the time. On a large Conference Room Display, this would have looked awful. After a bit of research we discovered another way of capturing video using the Apple Development tools, Reality Composer Pro. Recording using this utility can be described as walking through a minefield of frustration bombs!
Making a Video of a Vision Pro Experience needs to be easier!
All we had to do was record an experience of just under four minutes! It was much more difficult than making the App itself!
The first challenge is that Reality Composer Pro limits the recording to one minute. We wanted to record a four minute experience. We quickly found out why the limit was a minute, after recording two 1 minute video’s, the device was overheating and we had to wait 15-30 minutes for it to cool down! Our experience included a FaceTime call; whenever we initiated the call, the recording stopped. Furthermore, whilst recording we experienced strange application behaviour that did not happen when we were not recording, controls vanished, windows jumped around, and the app crashed several times. After two days, and some very clever post production by our Video Editing Team we had our finished 4 minute video. There has to be an easier way! How do all the YouTube influencers do it? If anyone knows a trick to address these problems please let me know!
Could I wear it all day?
Apple suggest that you can wear the Vision Pro all day, that it is comfortable and that the passthrough is so good you can wear it all day.
Quite simply, No. As I mentioned in my previous blog post on Realism and Immersion I still have a large chunk of plastic, glass and metal attached to my face, its not comfortable for extended periods. The Vision Pro is however, more comfortable to wear than most of the other VR and MR devices despite the fact that it is slightly heavier than many of the other devices.
I certainly recommend the Dual Band instead of the Solo Band as it balances the weight more evenly on the head. I have worn the device for a few hours, for example to watch a movie or attend a long conference call; and its certainly doable, however I always have a sense of relief when I take it off. I do understand however the challenges to make a better device. A device that I could wear all day, easily.
In order to come up with a better device ergonomically there has to be some significant developments in the technologies that are related to the components used to build XR devices. We need advances in:
Device/Component size and weight.
Processor Architecture, speed and power requirements
Optics and Display resolution, Field of View improvements and lower power requirements
Camera capabilities including resolution and light sensitivity
Developments in the materials used in constructing the device. Softer, breathable materials for headbands and cushions enhance comfort during prolonged use.
Battery Efficiency: Longer battery life, smaller batteries that are hot-swappable to ensure uninterrupted use.
Heat Dissipation and Cooling Technologies: Efficient cooling mechanisms prevent discomfort from heat buildup, and prevent the device from overheating. This is also related to Processor Power and the power utilisation of the components use to construct the device
Customisable Fit. Modular components and adaptable designs cater to diverse head shapes and sizes.
These are some examples, however there are many more challenges to overcome; and in time they will result in XR headsets that are more powerful and easier to wear than the devices on the market today.
In nearly all of the above examples, Apple are (in my opinion) doing better than most of their competitors but they also need to do better in nearly every one of them for the adoption of XR to be even wider.
AR Spectacles
The Spectacle form factor is a key milestone on the roadmap for AR when considering Form factor and Ergonomics.
Devices are available from companies like Vuzix that are making very interesting devices that are on the road to a practical spectacle form factor, however there are limited applications, it is a companion device to a phone or tablet and they are not part of an Ecosystem like Apple have with the Vision Pro; they are industrial devices which are interesting to the company I work for, but not of much interest to the consumer market due to the limited ecosystem and form factor.
Furthermore a user experience that relies on voice control or some sort of touchpad/buttons on the device is suboptimal to say the least; the eye tracking and gesture control that Apple have implemented so well is no where to be seen on such devices.
Monocular or Head Mounted Tablets are available from companies such as Realwear and Iristick as well as Vuzix are interesting for some industrial use cases, though there are ecosystem, user experience and manageability challenges that are roadblocks to many use cases in the Industrial space, and have no or very limited consumer appeal.
The biggest issue I have with these Monocular devices is that after using them for an hour or more I start to get a headache that lasts for some hours even after I stop using the device. Some lucky people however do not have this problem, and for some PoV Audio/Video collaboration use cases they can solve real business problems that do deliver value. To me, these are transient devices that “will do” until something better comes along.
So what about the future of Ergonomics and Form Factor for VR?
In the Netflix Show “3 Body Problem” John Bradley’s character, Jack Rooney said “This is not normal,” after trying out the VR game designed to recruit the world’s brightest and most inquisitive scientists. “Do you understand how far beyond the current state of the art this is? I mean, we’re talking about 50 years? 150?”
When I watched the Netflix Show “3 Body Problem” and the VR Experience that was akin to Teleporting into a Metaverse with all my senses with me I quickly realised that type of experience is not going to happen in my lifetime! However there are fewer technical barriers to an ergonomically better experience in VR and MR than there are with AR. The challenges that are associated with improvements in VR and MR are more economical, can the components be available at the right price point to make them attractive to the consumer market? To a large extent, time will solve this problem.
This brings us to a key topic, and an emotional one. Economics and Price. There are so many people complaining about the price of the Vision Pro, however as I stated in previous blog posts, this isn’t an Apple device with an inflated price (like others!) The components alone amount to almost 50% of the retail price because Apple have released a device using State of the Art components.
Could this be the Future?
I don’t think this will be the next Spatial Device from Apple, but I hope its somewhere on the roadmap!
A week or so ago, the tech press were stating that Apple was halting development on the Vision Pro 2, and many Journalists jumped on the Bandwagon of their peers saying “Told you so! Its too expensive” Apple are not killing the device, instead they are said to be switching focus to develop a cheaper device and are more likely to resume the development of a Premium Headset like the Vision Pro once there is volume in the market for the cheaper device to consume the content.
The ecosystem of Apps and Services will be the places where big money is made, if the right device at the right price point is available and the user experience is close to the Vision Pro. The Vision Pro, in my opinion is a development platform, an early adopters platform that can be used to create awareness that problems other devices have had can be solved. Now to create a more cost effective platform to consume the products and service. I think this is a smart move from Apple. The big question is “Can Apple develop a cheaper device without compromising too much on User Experience?” The rumours are that Apple are thinking about tethering the cheaper device to an iPhone, this could be a way to go. Lets see what happens next.
Im excited!
Finally, my trivial moans about the Vision Pro.
These are mind numbingly trivial, however most of them really bug me because they would be so easy to solve!!
Trivial Points:
Im tired of telling people to be careful picking up the Apple Vision Pro by the Light Seal, it comes off so easily and the Vision Pro would fall on the ground and break. Stronger Magnets please!
The battery should be connected to the device with a Mag Safe connector to avoid accidents when walking of with one, or with the other on the table!
The Vision Pro Travel Case : $199? Really Apple? You are not Hermès! Even the cushioned design that gets dirty so easily and is un-cleanable? Its clear that Sir Jonny Ive is no longer at Apple!
The cost of most of the accessories is excessive, but $19 for a Microfibre cloth? Thats obscene!
I had more trivial points but most of those seem to be addressed in VisionOS 2, however I still have to test it, I may update this list if the testing does not go well.