Apple’s Vision Pro headset has made the metaverse really feel outdated

Apple lastly revealed the $3,499 Vision Pro, its long-awaited “mixed reality” headset, this week. It conjured up many descriptions — a “spatial computer that seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world”, a “personal movie theatre with a screen that feels 100 feet wide” — however one phrase remained obviously absent: “metaverse”.

The metaverse, a digital world during which folks would meet as avatars to play, work and socialise, was all the craze not way back. Fb renamed itself Meta in 2021, and firms from Microsoft to Sony have proudly unveiled headsets. However the imaginative and prescient that excited executives has landed with a thud amongst customers.

“This one is for you, the believers . . . the people who’d rather be early than fashionably late,” Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief government, declared with a contact of snark final 12 months as he unveiled its skilled Meta Quest Pro headset. On cue, Apple rolled up late to the occasion this week with a disdainful look on the early arrivals.

Apple took its time. It has been working on digital and augmented actuality for seven years and the Vision Pro nonetheless lacks among the design sleekness for which it’s identified: the headset is tethered to a separate battery. But those that tried it briefly had been impressed by the high-definition readability of its photos and the considering behind them.

“You know there’s a screen in front of you, but it feels very real. I’ve never had that feeling before,” Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst for IDC Europe, advised me. Leo Gebbie, of CCS Perception, stated that he had tried dozens of headsets over years and “I can quite comfortably say this is the best experience I’ve ever had”.

Apple has not let mere cash get in the best way. At seven instances the value of Meta’s forthcoming Quest 3 headset, which is meant to do among the identical issues, the Vision Pro is defiantly costly. It crams 23mn pixels on two tiny screens, seen by means of customized lenses, with pictures and movies rendered by two Apple chips.

This feels like overkill, however one of many issues with digital actuality is that the know-how has been insufficient. As an alternative of being transported seamlessly right into a digital utopia, headset wearers have felt uncomfortable, disoriented and typically queasy. They’ve additionally appeared ridiculous and been lower off from their environment.

Not being in California for the launch this week, I popped over as a substitute to Otherworld in east London, billed as “the world’s most immersive VR experience”. There, I wore an HTC Vive Pro headset, held two controllers and climbed right into a pod to play varied video games, together with Fruit Ninja, on an island metaverse.

Others had been having fun with themselves however my essential sensations after half an hour had been of movement illness and an urge to flee outdoors. Apple has tried to overcome the primary downside, widespread amongst headsets, by rendering the pictures quick sufficient that there’s not a noticeable lag, and thus much less nausea.

However there’s a deeper problem with digital actuality: the thought of the metaverse itself. Irrespective of how enthusiastic Zuckerberg and others get about turning us into cartoons to spend hours in digital worlds, it stays unconvincing other than for gaming. I’ve by no means been tempted and, to guage by gross sales figures, neither have loads of others.

It’s much more pure to stay within the superbly lit, high-definition world we already inhabit and have digital components overlaid on it with know-how. That concept, often known as augmented actuality, is what Apple has geared toward with the Vision Pro, and its presentation succeeded this week by demonstrating the way it may work.

The very first thing that customers see after placing on headsets is the rooms they’re in, somewhat than a digital world. They’re proven the standard array of Apple apps, which they choose utilizing eye and hand actions, and which open in screenlike shows. Even when they’re viewing a movie, they will see if somebody approaches them.

Actually, the Vision Pro is a trick mirror: somewhat than being an augmented actuality machine, it’s a digital actuality headset posing as one. Customers see photos of the world by means of high-definition cameras somewhat than gazing by means of its visor. Apple has not but pulled off the technological feat of creating true AR glasses.

So whereas Tim Cook dinner, Apple’s chief government, opened his remarks by saying that “augmented reality is a profound technology”, he additionally referred to the Vision Pro as “the beginning of a journey”. That was in all probability smart: I cannot be dashing out to spend $3,499 on this primary try to make a headset into vital know-how.

However Apple achieved one factor this week: it made the mass attraction of such a tool believable. It unveiled one thing that’s each extra acquainted and extra subtle than what got here earlier than, and rendered as we speak’s digital worlds even much less attractive. The all-purpose metaverse already appeared financially perilous; it now feels outdated.

Apple is just not essentially destined to dominate augmented actuality; by the point an inexpensive Vision arrives, others may have had time to regulate. However it has a behavior of defining applied sciences, from the Macintosh to the iPhone. On this week’s proof, it nonetheless has the knack of being fashionably late.

john.gapper@ft.com