Instant News-Instant Market Review-[Cross Market Game]Why Don’t Underestimate Apple’s Vision Pro

While social media has had a mixed reaction to Apple’s new Vision Pro, which blends the digital and the real world, some have ridiculed the device’s ski-goggle-like appearance and exorbitant price tag. However, in the context of Reality, Apple’s Vision Pro headset seems to make the virtual reality (Virtual Reality, VR) and even the metaverse, which has been suspected by the market, a mainstream technology in the future.

Apple’s Vision Pro uses some of the 12 cameras to capture the outside world and display them on the user’s screen; Down, it looks almost the same as real direct viewing. Since speed is critical, Apple claims that VR causes known problems such as dizziness, mainly from the threshold of 12 milliseconds of brain and image delay. Impressive given that it takes an image sensor about 7 to 8 milliseconds to capture and process what it sees, Vision Pro’s vision pipeline can bring content to the eye in 12 milliseconds or less. This means Vision Pro only takes about 4 milliseconds from receiving an image to processing it.

Another key part of Vision Pro is the “real-time execution engine”. In fact, “real time” doesn’t just describe the experience of using Vision Pro, it’s actually another term for computing. Regarding real-time operating system (RTOS), it can be simply defined as processing data and events with strict time constraints. Unlike traditional Time-Sharing operating systems (such as Unix), RTOS is event-driven and preemptive multitasking (preemptive).

Another interesting part is that during the whole process of using Vision Pro, the user’s hand only needs to be placed on the thigh, and its movement will be automatically tracked by the Vision Pro’s camera, and the operation effect feels very natural. In addition, visionOS eye-tracking is also very precise, making it easy to distinguish the exact UI element the user is looking at and manipulate with a simple touch of a finger. After seeing Apple’s excellent, very effective demonstration, and the generally positive reviews from those who tried it, this may be the most advanced, new and revolutionary personal electronic device ever created.

Due to the excellent immersive effect, Apple also emphasized the movie viewing experience of Vision Pro at the product launch. But even more striking is a series of immersive video experiences not shown, such as one of the clips of an NBA basketball game that is very realistic. This clip of the baseline game feels like sitting on the sidelines, and it’s more immersive than the experience on Meta’s Oculus Quest VR. One of the reasons for this immersion is that Apple created its own camera to capture the game using its new Apple Immersive Video Format. From another perspective, Meta’s Quest seems to be completely outdated in terms of hardware; on the contrary, Apple has a deep integration between its own developed chips and its custom operating system, compared to other chips that rely on Android and Qualcomm designs There are obviously advantages that are difficult to replicate for the company.

Is the $3,500 price tag too expensive? this might be. But the “Pro” in the product’s name seems to suggest that a cheaper, more consumer-friendly model may be on the way. In 2013, when the first generation of Apple Watch was released, the smart watch was also questioned by the outside world as a stupid and doomed product. Many people also laughed at its appearance and dismissed it as an expensive toy. Things have changed. Last year, the annual shipment of Apple Watch reached 50 million units, accounting for 60% of the global smart watch market revenue.

In my opinion, don’t underestimate Apple’s market expansion ability to turn niche products into mainstream products; don’t forget that human behavior is not fixed, and the idea of ​​what is fashionable and what is socially acceptable is always changing. changes with the advent of new technologies.

(The author holds a financial interest in Apple)

Family Office Investment Manager

Xu Liyan (this column is published every Monday)

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