Yesterday, I had a demo of the Vision Pro at an Apple Store. It was easy to get, which is not a positive indicator for sales.

Over a long time, I decided to skip having the demo after concluding from reading/watching several reviews that I would not buy one. There was no compelling reason that I could ascertain. However, I needed to understand the experience directly, and I am glad I made that decision.

Things could have started better. My appointment was for 1:00 pm. The appointment was to last 20 minutes. The greeter told me I would have to wait a while, which turned into 20 minutes. Since I wear glasses, I had to have my prescription read by a particular machine. That went smoothly. Then, the demonstrator and I had to wait for a unit that had the proper insert to correct my eyesight. be brought to us.

Someone brought the Vision Pro on a tray. It felt like I was going to be crowned king. While we had been waiting, the demonstrator showed me some key ways I would interact with the Vision Pro. He showed me simple hand gestures, like pinching your thumb and pointer finger to select an object.

I put on the Vision Pro. It was not uncomfortable, but it still felt heavy at 1 1/2 pounds. We tried to start up, but the process failed. It would not adjust for the insert. Eventually, the person helping me decided that he would have to request a new unit. So we started up new, which included determining my sight prescription. Someone brought the second unit to us. It failed as well. The person demonstrating the Vision Pro kept trying to get it to boot correctly, but it would not. I could tell he was not only frustrated, which was totally understandable, but he did not have a clue. I asked him to get some technical support, which he did. It turns out that the iPad he was using to control the Vision Pro had to be rebooted. I had been in the Apple Store for an hour by this time.

We started with my learning to control the Vision Pro. Eye tracking is used to point to any of the controls/objects. It was amazing how easy that was. I would look at a button, photo, or anything, and it would be ready to select with a simple pinch. Awesome!

We then looked at photos, and I learned how to select and expand pictures. We had some panoramic images, and I could look around them. Then we had 3-D Photos on an iPhone 15 (I have once but did not even know about this feature). The 3-D photos were vivid. Then, we looked at 3-D videos made on an iPhone. They were very impactful. Finally, we looked at Immersive Videos, 8K videos using Spatial Audio, and a 180-degree field of vision, which was the most impactful experience I had during the demo. I watch clips of sports events, family parties, tightrope walking, etc. It was so realistic that I saw a table near me at one time, and I put my hand down on it to rest, but of course, it was not there.

The demo included creating multiple screens and placing them in different areas of my field of vision, like having multiple monitors on my desk. That was interesting but not important to me. Also, I could see no way the Vision Pro would replace my desktop computer, monitor, and keyboard.

I wrote earlier about my thoughts regarding the Vision Pro. I find it hard to imagine that most people will want one. It can no substitute for any of the Apple products I have now (iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, or Apple Watch); I guess it could take over the function of my Apple TV, but I like to watch TV with my wife, and I can’t imagine us having one, let alone two Vision Pros.

I remain convinced that in the near term, the future of the Vision Pro is in vertical markets where it could be very successful (although not a mass market). However, I have one exception. I see it as an entertainment device for concerts and sports events. I don’t go to either myself. But I can imagine others that go to such events buying one. It would be mighty if you had friends who were “attending’ the same event, and you felt that you were in the same virtual space.

I don’t see it for video conferencing, but I could easily be wrong. I would have to see the app.

If the Vision Pro sold for less than a thousand dollars, I would buy it to fool around, but it currently costs close to $4k, including options like vision inserts.

Apple has done a fantastic job of engineering. They will learn a lot and eventually improve the product and reduce its cost. In the meantime, others may develop killer apps that will make buying the Vision Pro compelling. Clearly, in the short term, the killer app would be Porn, but I doubt that Apple will make that possible.