Apple Introduces Vision Pro Mixed Reality Glasses

Apple has entered a new product category with the introduction of the Vision Pro mixed reality headset. The device will cost $3,499 and will go on sale early next year in the United States, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, announced. Apple, at the company's developer conference. Apple has not announced availability and pricing for other markets outside of the United States.

This first generation of the Vision Pro is a niche product and is aimed at developers and enthusiasts of technological innovations. We will have to wait for the next versions of the glasses to see if Apple will be the actor that manages to take off a technology that has been presenting itself as revolutionary for years but has not managed to hook consumers to become a mass product.

The glasses, which Apple has been working on for seven years and hold more than 5,000 patents, fall into the category known as mixed reality. The viewer, with two high-definition screens, allows you to live immersive virtual reality experiences. But, above all, they are presented as an augmented reality device that displays digital content on a view of the real world thanks to high-resolution cameras that show the environment that surrounds the user within the viewer. People can see the glasses wearer's eyes when he is in augmented reality mode, but they are opaque to someone in an immersive virtual experience.

Apple's Vision Pro have a ski goggle-like aesthetic and work autonomously, without the need to be connected to a mobile or computer. The glasses, which use Apple chips (the M2 and a new one called the R1), are controlled by hands, eyes and voice. The device uses twelve cameras, six microphones and various sensors, and offers a spatial audio experience. It has an external battery with two hours of autonomy.

The Vision Pro, which uses a new operating system called VisionOS and will have its own application store, can be used to communicate, work, play or watch movies (including 3D films) on large virtual screens that will be displayed before the eyes, between other applications that Apple has shown. Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, announced that his Disney streaming movie service will be available from launch on Apple glasses.

"Apple Vision Pro will revolutionize the way we communicate, collaborate, work and enjoy entertainment," said Tim Cook during the presentation, in which he stressed that the product (he never referred to it as mixed reality) represents "the beginning of the trip" to a new era that he defined as that of "spatial computing. The executive equated the launch to what in the past the Mac could mean in personal computing and the iPhone in mobile computing.

Apple has not entered a new product category since it launched its first Apple Watch smartwatches in 2015. Analysts are warily eyeing the company's debut in the virtual reality market because these glasses have failed to break out of the niche product category - just under nine million units were sold last year, according to IDC. , despite the fact that there are already affordable products. Without going any further, the market leader, Meta, has announced that the Meta Quest 2 will drop in price to $300.

However, it is true that Apple has shown in the past its ability to drive adoption of product categories such as music players or mobile phones. In addition, the company makes this move not only to diversify its current ecosystem of products and services, but also to lay the technological foundations for a future in which the revolution could come from the hand of designer glasses with lightweight frames, which will offer augmented reality applications.

The company also announced other products at the developer conference. Apple presented a Macbook Air laptop (1,599 euros) with a 15-inch retina display and 11 mm thickness, which uses the M2 chip and promises up to 18 hours of battery life. I am also announcing a new chip, called M2 Ultra, which will be included in the most advanced model of its Mac Studio range, as well as in the new Mac Pro, with a price starting at 8,399 euros.

As usual at the developer conference, Apple announced various software developments, with new versions of the operating systems for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Watch. For example, the iOS 17 operating system will include a feature, Live Voicemail, which will allow viewing a real-time transcript of messages left in the voicemail when a call is not answered. In addition, video messages can be left in the recipient's mailbox on Facetime. For its part, the possibility of transcribing the audio messages of your Messages application will be offered. The company also announced Journal, a new iOS app coming later this year that will make it easy for users to create personal journals with text, photos and music based on your activity. The app employs machine learning to offer users suggestions for writing their journals.

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