“How many fingers do I have?” » Many passers-by are tempted to ask this question when they meet a user wearing Apple Vision Pro on the subway or in a hotel lobby. We can understand them. The object looks like a high-tech ski helmet covering half the face. It is hard to imagine that the wearer is aware of their surroundings. Two weeks after the commercial launch of this virtual reality headset in the United States, the The Wall Street Journal Gives an account of the first social interactions born of its use. The Early adopters Describe the first look at this gadget sold for $3,500.
Same surprise for AirPods
Apple Vision Pro presents itself as a “Space Computer” According to the terms used by the Cupertino company. It’s similar to a smartphone that you can wear on your face to check email, watch movies, browse the web, play video games, and more. To control the application, the movements of the eyes and fingers are enough. While wearing the headset, users can continue to see the world around them. It is mainly this functionality that causes incomprehensibility in the user monitoring people.
The The Wall Street Journal This surprise compares to the first reactions to the AirPods. When they were released in 2016, Apple’s wireless headphones were the laughing stock of the tech press and a section of Internet users, deemed useless and their wearers ridiculous. In the 2000s, smartphone touch screens also left observers skeptical.
Videos on social media are sometimes misleading
For the moment, Vision Pro wearers are seen primarily as objects of curiosity. Tech entrepreneur Ben Parr told the Economic Daily that he wore the headset on planes and in hotel lobbies and received about ten requests from people who wanted to try it.
Nikias Molinas, a Spanish YouTuber in his twenties, has been sharing his daily life through headphones on TikTok for several days. On a crowded New York subway, no one pays attention to his new gadget and the way he types on a keyboard that only he sees. On the other hand, on the flight back to Barcelona (he had made a trip to the United States specifically to buy a helmet), he intrigues the passengers and annoys the flight attendant who rolls her eyes at him. .
@nikiasmolina working on Apple Vision Pro in the NYC subway ‼️👓 #apple #applevisionpro #applevision #tech ♬ Golden Hour – Piano Version – Main Character Tune
However, many videos circulating on social networks are misleading, note Numerama. Some, where we see users walking down the street while making strange gestures, are just meant to go viral. At X, a certain Dante Lentini films in his Tesla Autopilot (autonomous driving), the helmet is screwed on his nose, like he wants to be the man of the 2020s. He later admitted that the video, which has been viewed more than 26 million times, was staged. “We just spent $3,500 on this thing, we might as well find ways to make a profit out of it.”It declares The Wall Street Journal.
In practice, it is almost impossible to use an Apple headset while moving. At Brian Chen, journalist New York TimesExplains that during testing of his device, he nearly tripped while walking his dogs and became nauseous while standing up and cooking.
However, as mentioned above, it is possible to wear it in the metro, train or in the passenger seat of a car, provided you stay stationary. There’s a “travel” mode that allows you to display apps in augmented reality, but this only works if one of the decor points you find yourself in remains the same (the front seat, for example).
Apple is not targeting the general public
On the other hand, in the privacy of the home, the headset gives rise to new types of scenes that are primarily more reliable. As the first review notes, Vision Pro is above all things that are not shared and used alone. A father explains The Wall Street Journal Able to watch movies through the device while her one-month-old daughter naps on it. He then went to bed next to his wife with the idea of continuing to watch his film, eventually changing his mind for fear of alienating his partner.
The price of helmets limits this new type of activity to a limited number of customers. But still the first 200,000 copies were sold out within hours. In France, the marketing date has not yet been announced.
Unlike the iPhone or the Apple Watch, Apple is selling a product here that, while impressive according to some reviews, is not yet dedicated to the general public. So it is up to the first buyers to define their uses based on the gaze – curious and annoyed – of their peers. For American analyst Benedict Evans, Apple is thus projecting into the future. As if the brand had launched the iPhone in 2002, instead of 2007, at a higher price and without a very specific use.
