After seeing Apple’s Vision Pro operating system, visionOS, in action, it’s now a reliable source to tell us what the plans for Apple’s MR technologies for the next few months: while the Cupertino giant finishes work on its first viewer, in fact, some engineers are already developing a new device.
The news comes from Mark Gurman, Bloomberg journalist, who in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter reveals a series of interesting news on the state of development of Vision Pro. Gurman explains that Apple showed a 30 minute demo of Vision Pro to the press, influencers and, now, some financial consultants and partners of the company: the latter, however, only shows the most advanced development parts of visionOS.
Conversely, several parts of the operating system interface would not be ready yet: in particular, the possibility of type without using the keyboard it is still precluded by visionOS, and needs another weeks of work. At the same time, even the implementation on third-party apps of the main features, such as 3D video playback and the EyeSight feature of Apple Vision Pro, would still be in the high seas. Finally, it seems that the bitten apple is still working on compatibility of Vision Pro with custom lenses for people with low vision and the overall comfort of the headset.
However, now that the viewer has been unveiled to the public and there are no longer strict secrecy requirements, Apple put thousands of employees to work additional ones, in addition to those that have already dealt with the viewer in the past, on its software. For this reason, the new visionOS betas arriving in the coming months will come with many more pre-installed apps, such as Calendar, Maps, Books and Mail, which are not yet finished at the moment.
Another problem is that of sales: for the marketing of Vision Pro, Apple will revolutionize its stores, with an area specially dedicated to the viewer and the demonstrations dedicated to it. Employees will also be provided with an iPhone app that will need to scan each customer’s face and determine how tight or loosen the headset straps should be to make it as comfortable as possible.
Finally, it seems that some engineers who have dealt with the hardware of Vision Pro are already working on two new viewers. The first will be the much-rumored low-cost Apple headset, which could be launched between late 2024 and early 2025. The second, however, will be a direct successor to Vision Pro (which hypothetically could be called Vision Pro 2).
The latter will arrive in 2025 with an M3 chip and a number of exclusive features, including the possibility of connect multiple headsets in the same FaceTime callthe ability to view the desks of multiple Macs and Macbooks connected to the same Apple account and, finally, additional fitness features (which in fact may not be released on Vision Pro next year).