back to article iFixit tears Apple's Vision Pro to pieces

Tech repair champ iFixit has disassembled Apple's newly released Vision Pro headset and came up with an explanation for why the EyeSight display looks so weird. Depending on your stance, Apple's VR/AR goggles are either revolutionary or a very visible way of demonstrating that you have $3,499 or so to burn. iFixit has yet to …

  1. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Ifixit consulted with, amongst others, Karl Guttag for their AVP teardown. He's an expert on wearable displays, and in his blog he analyses all manner of AR and heads-up display.

    https://kguttag.com/

    He's said he might review his AVP unit alongside a new Sony MR headset (hich is only available to business and is being released in partnership with Siemens NX CAD software).

    Apple use 'passthrough' AR where cameras capture an image of the real world, combine it with virtual content, and display it to the wearer.

    Another approach is Optical AR, where light from the real world enters the wearer's eyes, with virtual content also directed to the users by means of lenses and mirrors.

    There are pros and cons to both approaches, neither is yet perfect. Any definition of 'good enough' depends upon the user and the application.

    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      "Any definition of 'good enough' depends upon the user and the application."

      Yep, the story as old as technology itself.

      Personally, I've got no use for such a device, but I could see the potential for use in training scenarios in many fields, as well as some sensory enhancements if properly implemented.

      That said, the price will likely bring many corporate clients up short. Still, give it a few years and someone will produce a more affordable offering.

      And as likely, a pocket sized fusion reactor... ;)

  2. tiggity Silver badge

    Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

    WTF?

    Surely if I'm shelling out huge amounts of money for VR, then, given the "images" presented are all chip generated, it should not be too difficult to electronically apply a transformation so the image is appropriate for whatever prescription the user provides to the VR set. *

    .. Given that lots of people wear glasses, and your prescription can change over time, then potentially needs purchase of multiple inserts (unless the VR headset has a ripoff short life span). Inserts are "only" 149$ (so assume will be £149 or above in UK, in usual 1 - 1 or higher mark-up used on currency conversion) so "cheap" by Apple standards (but more than my most recent prescription glasses purchased in 2023)

    .. Not that I'm in the market for VR as I can see no compelling reason - there is no "killer app" for VR

    * Yes I'm aware this would need additional processing (& simplistically, potentially more / better chips including as I'm sure current hardware is minimum they can get away with) - but we are not exactly talking a low budget product here.

    1. tony72

      Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

      A 2D display can't bend light, so no amount of processing can replace what lenses do - lenses change the direction of light rays entering the eye. Now, a true light-field display might be another matter.

      1. Annihilator

        Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

        There are lenses in front of the displays though - my optical physics is as rusty as my own eye-sight, but I'd wager that having them moveable would do the trick. Much like I can use a pair of binoculars without my glasses.

        Or, even more simply, just have room inside the headset to wear your own glasses - like others do.

        1. Lee D Silver badge

          Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

          They would have to flex, not move. Moving them would only moving the focus point back and forth, but would need to move "as much" as the user prescription (i.e. bad eyes, equals several feet away!) and the image would be corresponding far away / shrunk for that person.

          They would have to be lenses that can literally "bend" to refocus the light, which would basically be like inventing a universal software-controlled pair of spectacles that can be used by literally anyone, bad eyesight or not, with any prescription, and be able to change from any prescription to any other prescription, without having to worry about ever making another lens ever. We don't have that technology yet.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

            Never mind whether you can use your glasses or not*, I'm much more bothered by iFixit's "we have heard that lenses are not available for people who have astigmatism". That's a much bigger problem IMHO.

            * Why would you want the inconvenience of a pair of glasses as well as the inconvenience of a super-heavy pair of ski goggle?

            tiggity's eyesight is presumably not too bad since they can apparently live with subsidised NHS lenses. My last pair were over £600.

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

              1. Dave 126 Silver badge

                Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

                > Sounds like you don't need glasses, you need a guide dog

                That would only be useful if the dog has a degree in optical engineering.

                1. David 132 Silver badge
                  Happy

                  Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

                  Tenuously related, but an opportunity to share my favourite Groucho Marx quote:

                  "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.

                  Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

                2. Wzrd1 Silver badge

                  Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

                  "That would only be useful if the dog has a degree in optical engineering."

                  Optics is easy! As long as I let someone qualified design them. ;)

                  As for the one suggesting a guide dog, I've no need for one, as I've got a fine gun that I'll be leaving parked and chocked that's happily resting on their toes. No need for munitions, the sheer mass will be quite convincing enough to generate an apology.

                  And the need for a replacement foot...

                  No, I really don't own a howitzer. As the building charges for parking, I couldn't afford the parking spot - or the paint to maintain such an absurd machine.

              2. Dave 126 Silver badge
                Coat

                Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

                Maybe a wave-guide dog will do the trick.

                I'll retriever my coat.

            2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

              Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

              My last pair were over £600

              Likewise - although, because both my eyes breach the -10 dioptre limit I get a grant from the Government of an amazing £5 per lens. [1]

              The optician doesn't bother to apply for it - doing the paperwork would cost more than the £10 they would get so they just give me the discount and move on.

              (I have to have two sets of glasses - one for close work and readong and one for driving or anything else that needs longer vision - my prescription is such that they can't make a lens that allows me to do both especially when you take presbyopia into account..

              I did wear contacts (hard gass-perms) for many years - gave me pretty much perfect vision and automagically fixed the cylinders of astigmatism that I have in both eyes. But I was getting to the stage of needed reading glasses anyway and wearing the lenses all day was becoming more and more uncomfortable so I went back to glasses full time.

              I really envy people that can wake up and just *see*. You really don't know how lucky you are. My sight gets notably worse if I have a headache so I think my brain is doing its best to make sense of the images it does get!

              [1] I don't count as partially-sighted because, with the glasses, I do get a fair degree of vision (I can read down to the 4th line of the sight test). The chromatic abberation is somewhat of a pain though - especially at night with oncoming car headlights.

              1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

                Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

                "The optician doesn't bother to apply for it - doing the paperwork would cost more than the £10 they would get so they just give me the discount and move on."

                Yeah, time spent vs money recovered, not worth the trouble.

                Thankfully, my vision was never quite that bad. Needed glasses for distance since age 16, hit my 40's and needed bifocals (never could get used to those), mid-40's and suddenly didn't need correction for distance vision. Hit my 50's and I needed cataract surgery to remove damaged natural lenses, leaving me with implanted lenses set for distance and a need for reading glasses that are "dime store" cheap.

                And occasional laser treatment to blast holes through the posterior lens capsule... Otherwise, it starts to appear as if the cataracts have returned.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Wyrdness

      Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

      If you think that it's "not too difficult" to process an electronic image so that it's viewable for people with varying eye prescriptions, then I strongly suggest that you work out how it can be done, patent it and rake in the millions from your idea.

      Because most of us believe that the only simple way to bend the light between screen and eyes is to use physical lenses.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Solution:

        The cost of LASIK eye surgery for two eyes is roughly on par with the cost of the Apple Vision.

        (I've never thought of getting it done, I've grown used to having some protective plastic in front of my eyes at all times)

        Soft contact lenses are also an option - hard ones don't work with the AVP apparently.

        Best bet is to wait for MK II or III anyway, by which time you can learn from the experiences of other users who require corrective glasses.

        Wait for a later version anyway, the software ecosystem isn't there yet. Consider this MK I a developer model that is also sold to members of the public who watch movies by themselves (in which case it has been compared favourably to similar-costing big televisions)

        1. Persona non grata

          Re: Solution:

          "The cost of LASIK eye surgery for two eyes is roughly on par with the cost of the Apple Vision."

          That's strange, it was free for both of my parents. You must live in some kind of neoliberal hellscape.

          1. Dave 126 Silver badge

            Re: Solution:

            > You must live in some kind of neoliberal hellscape

            You do know we can't pick up on the irony in your voice when type, don't you?

            I live in the UK that has a 'free at the point of service' National Health Service. LASIK eye surgery is only given for free if it is to treat an eye condition that could lead to blindness if left untreated.

            At my age, the cost of LASIK would be roughly on a par with what I might spend on spectacles and contact lenses for the rest of might life, depending upon how often I lose or break the things. That said, all spectacles and contact lenses provide a degree of protection against Ultra Violet light.

            Some sports and activities make spectacles impractical, scuba diving for example.

        2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: Solution:

          Soft contact lenses are also an option

          No good if you have more than a cylinder or two of astigmatism..

      2. Wzrd1 Silver badge

        Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

        "Because most of us believe that the only simple way to bend the light between screen and eyes is to use physical lenses."

        Not really, gravity can bend light quite handily. Although, most of us wouldn't enjoy wearing anything from a neutron star to a black hole anywhere in proximity to their nose.

        I'll just get my coat...

    4. DS999 Silver badge

      Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

      I assume only those who can't wear contacts would need the lens inserts, as contact lenses are the obvious solution to both avoid the cost and weight of lens inserts. It is too bad that we can't make displays out of millions of tiny steerable lasers so a computational transformation could correct for visual shortcomings, but that's not possible today. Probably not at any price, but certainly not at a price possible for a mass consumer item.

      If anyone ever figures it out, they can be assured Apple would be along shortly with a huge check to either buy the company or buy long term rights for wearable consumer electronics products. Maybe Apple already has people doing long term research along those lines internally, who knows.

      1. I could be a dog really Silver badge

        Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

        s/can't/don't want to/ I could not contemplate wearing contacts.

        Plus there is a technical reason as well. If you wear contacts, they deform the front of the eye. This means if you wear contacts while using the headset, if you take them out afterwards and put your regular glasses back on then your vision will be out - how much depends on several factors including how long you had the contacts in. AIUI, for this reason, sight tests for contact wearers are made with the contacts in, and then the optician adds the results to their previous prescription to get the new one.

        1. DS999 Silver badge

          Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

          As someone who wears contacts that's a load of bull. They don't deform the eyes (I wear soft lenses, maybe hard ones do what you say I have no idea)

          When I get tested they do a quick test with my contacts in, but the full test is done after they are removed.

          1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

            Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

            They don't deform the eyes (I wear soft lenses, maybe hard ones do what you say I have no idea)

            Hard gas perms do (I wore them from age 18 to about age 50) - they act as a jelly mould for the front of the eye and conform the cornea into the shape of the lens. Which is why, when you stop using hard lenses and go back to glasses, you need several sight-tests 3 months apart. At the end of which your eyes should have reverted back to their normal shape.

            In my case, that resulted in my eyesight getting *slightly* better but the cylinder orientation of astigmatism in both eyes shifting by a noticable amount.

            It's also why soft lenses don't automagically fix astigmatism (they mimic the shape of the front of the eye) whereas hard ones do because they force the front of the eye to be more spherical.

      2. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

        > It is too bad that we can't make displays out of millions of tiny steerable lasers so a computational transformation could correct for visual shortcomings, but that's not possible today.

        A helpful soul on Reddit has done a fair job of explaining why it isn't possible:

        https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/a9hisl/any_lightfield_display_experts_here_quick_question/

        1. DS999 Silver badge

          Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

          I'm not sure why what he said would make an array of millions of steerable lasers incapable of adjusting. He's saying that you need 1920x1080 (more if you want Vision Pro resolution) capable of 64x64 emission directions. He multiplied that 64x64 by the 1920x1080 pixels to get 8.5 billion pixels, but if you have steerable microlasers a single laser "pixel" can manage the 64x64 emission directions on its own.

          We can fab microlasers on a silicon chip, and we can fab MEMS devices on silicon that could precisely aim them, in fact well beyond 64x64 directions. However I doubt we have the ability to have 4000x3000 micro lasers on a single chip, even more doubt the ability to have 4000x3000 MEMs devices on a single chip, and have zero doubt that such a thing would not be remotely affordable even when it becomes possible to fab on a single chip (i.e. it would plenty of subsequent work to get it so the yields are near perfect since no one wants dead/stuck pixels in such an expensive device)

          But in a decade, who knows. It isn't something anyone should expect soon, but I don't see any technical hurdles that make it impossible to see eventually.

          1. Dave 126 Silver badge

            Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

            @DS99

            Yeah sorry mate, I left out a bit of my own thinking... I started with my assumption that the Rolls Royce of displays would mimic the real world where we can selectivily focus on objects near and far. That would require light fields, so I went off and found a better explanation than I could give.

            However, that is of course overkill for a universal VR headset where we just need a focal plane that can be adjusted to accommodate the users short or long sightedness.

        2. Wzrd1 Silver badge

          Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

          "A helpful soul on Reddit has done a fair job of explaining why it isn't possible:"

          As I recall, it is theoretically possible, but implausibly expensive. Think fleet of supercarriers expensive per unit, plus R&D for the adaptive optics that would have to be invented.

          And likely, weigh in close to that larger than a bread basket warship...

          I'm sure that a solution will arrive - right alongside commercial viable fusion power - in another 20 years, taken out and rinsed and repeated every 20 years.

          Because, some solutions, while possible, do illustrate the saying, "Sure, you could do this, but why in hell would you want to?".

      3. Bebu
        Windows

        Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

        《It is too bad that we can't make displays out of millions of tiny steerable lasers so a computational transformation could correct for visual shortcomings, but that's not possible today. Probably not at any price, but certainly not at a price possible for a mass consumer item.》

        Something like a real time computer generated hologram with the required lense correction computed in? :)

        Musk in his John Lumic incarnation, is already on the job - I have in implant for this.

        Bad enough have the polloi vacantly wandering about with headphone and earbuds scrambling their brains without their going full face with these infernal devices displaying mindless eyes.

        1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

          going full face with these infernal devices displaying mindless eyes

          Apparently, drivers in the US have to be warned not to drive while wearing their Apple Vision Pro:

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68215614

          Only in America..

          1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

            Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

            "Only in America.."

            True, however in that case, it was the press mistaking parody for reality.

            Although, for some drivers, bindfolded or sighted results in equal lack of skill in driving. Putting paid any notion of a flying car.

    5. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

      Erm, optics is a branch of physics, one cannot alter the laws of physics by clever implementation of circuitry, so precision lens inserts would be required to prevent severe operator fatigue.

      As for VR headsets, I can see a niche in a number of training scenarios, but overall utility for me, not too much - not even if the money fairy dropped off a huge load of excess wealth. I anticipate that latter to be due to occur around never the third.

      And I'm one of those who require reading glasses, as my eyes are permanently fixed focus after cataract surgery and surgical lens implants. Upside being, the only way that my prescription would change is if my skull changed shape.

      Give 'em time, direct retinal projection might actually get introduced, which might be a tad more practical. Well, as practical as a flying horse.

      1. I am David Jones Silver badge

        Re: Cnnot use with glasses so need prescription lens inserts

        “Upside being, the only way that my prescription would change is if my skull changed shape.“

        Best stay away from retrophrenology then

  3. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Frying tonite

    > three iPhone-sized batteries that combine to pump out an impressive 35.9 Wh

    Let's hope all those Joules (142,000) don't get routed through the wearer's head at once!

    1. mevets

      Re: Frying tonite

      Given the Price : Value ratio, I assume the wearer's have all had a little electroshock therapy.

    2. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: Frying tonite

      "Let's hope all those Joules (142,000) don't get routed through the wearer's head at once!"

      It'd have no noticeable effect whatsoever. No amount of energy can damage a singularity.

  4. Tron Silver badge

    Are those three lithium cells in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

    Let's hope they don't have a rapid unscheduled disassembly and take your love plums with them.

    These may be useful in luxury retail, industry, medicine, adult services and private education, but that is too much loot for us proles.

    I suspect the killer app for retail with this sort of tech would be stripping passers-by in real time. But given the price, that may be a couple of moral panics down the line.

    1. cookieMonster Silver badge
      Alert

      Re: Are those three lithium cells in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

      Regarding “adult services ”… I read there’s a porn blocker active on the units

      1. Bebu

        Re: Are those three lithium cells in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

        《Regarding “adult services ”… I read there’s a porn blocker active on the units》

        That is probably the funniest thing yet. If you were throwing USD3,000 at these things I imagine even in the US $3k would purchase a reasonable amount of negotiable affection (as they put it in Ankh-Morpork.)

        Or is Apple offering the accessibility of adult services as hardware subscription for these devices say €10 per month to be able to access porntube or whatever?

        Actually if these devices could block porn based on content filtering (would take a truckload of AI to do that I imagine) then there are parental control markets that could be far more lucretive.

  5. Joe Gurman

    Worth mentioning

    …. That the current price of the Vision Pro, mentioned prominently in every article I’ve read about the device, is roughly 53% of the initial price of the Apple II when it was introduced in 1977 (US$1298 = US$6525 today). No matter what other issues one might have with the device, or with Apple, that’s really rather remarkable.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Worth mentioning

      I agree. The first iPod was around £600, the first iPhone similar... and whilst they were both clear statements of intent they weren't bought in huge numbers until several years and models later... By which time the price had dropped to about a third. And I'd bought an iRiver or a Samsung.

      And by that the time, the ecosystems and third party devs were up to speed.

      As a CAD user, I've resigned myself to waiting some months or years - to see how it might be supported in various workflows by yet to written software - before I can read a review that will be useful to me.

      1. Roopee Silver badge

        Re: Worth mentioning

        ...but the Apple II, iPod and iPhone are all quite useful devices.

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Worth mentioning

          > ...but the Apple II, iPod and iPhone are all quite useful devices.

          They are, for some people for some tasks.

          As is this headset, potentially. But then as I said, I've been a 3D CAD user for twenty years (enough time to grow frustrated with some UI paradigms)- which I appreciate is niche. However, CAD might not be niche if a casual user now has a 3D scanner on their head, ML to help clean up the point clouds, and an intuitive interface.

          The iPod started niche (only worked with Macs, 5x the cost of a Minidisc recorder), the iPhone is now so many more things (wallet, train tickets, method of hailing a cab, many people's only camera, TV remote) than the first gen model. However, the first gen model did a lot to indicate the direction Apple would take it in.

          The criticism of "but what's the killer app"? Was levelled at the iPad. It's gone on to be the user interface for a lot of third party equipment such as surveying scanners, sound desks, point of sale terminals - it has hundreds of niche applications instead of a single killer application (a la the iPod's "a thousand albums in your pocket")

          1. Zolko Silver badge

            Re: Worth mentioning

            I've been a 3D CAD user for twenty years [...] which I appreciate is niche

            millions of people do 3D CAD, so no it's not "niche". And the difficult bit about CAD is not the CA part – Computer Assisted – but the D one – Design. You need to know and understand (both !) the mechanics and physics behind the design choices, and the computer will only assist you in the drawing part, which is admittedly easier than with a pen and paper. Actually, it's not easier but more forgiving : you don't have to redraw everything if you make a small mistake. BUT: if you're not able to do a good design on paper, you won't be able to do a good design in 3D CAD. These glasses will not help the tiniest bit in doing 3D CAD.

            1. Dave 126 Silver badge

              Re: Worth mentioning

              Mate, I agree 100 percent that you have to know what you are doing, and that actually draughting or modelling isn't the bulk of design and engineering work.

              However, your comment reads as if it was written in 1994, and if you think that an AR headset can only help with the 3D modelling stages then you've overlooked it use for:

              Organising ideas and constraints, akin to multiple whiteboards and pin boards

              Capturing real world 3D data, a room or a physical prototype.

              Capturing concepts that have been sketched on paper. Virtually 'projecting' images onto paper to be manually sketched over.

              Capturing data about clients, presenting concepts to clients.

              Team collaboration

              Marking out material for building physical prototypes.

              And on top of all that, sitting at desks isn't good for cognition.

              You might notice a theme here, and that is reducing the friction of taking data back and forth between the real and virtual worlds. A good design methodology is iterative - plan it, build it, break it and then plan it again - so reducing friction here is invaluable. As is working with other people, usually across different sites.

              It's a bit odd that you don't think computers help with the engineering and mechanics side of things too. You can simulate motion of components, you can simulate loads and stresses. For sure, an engineer might have an intuitive sense of what a bracket should look like, but he's gonna model it, run FEA on it, revise it, test a prototype, revise it, repeat, at each step putting the new data back into the model. He's not going to say 'Well, it looked alright on the back of fag packet' when there's a product recall.

              Yeah CAD is niche, whilst millions might use it, billions more use their computers to watch videos or do their accounts.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A question

    Why?

    1. Zolko Silver badge

      Re: A question

      Because Apple have too much money in the bank and needed something new – anything – to show. And the iCar-thing didn't quite work out. They also thought about an iToilet-wiper ... but then, you'd have asked the same question.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lost Sight In One Eye

    I am guessing that for a person with monocular vision, tge device is useless!

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Lost Sight In One Eye

      Neil Innes tells the anecdote of Viv Stanshall and Oliver Reed going out on the piss. They stumble into a clothes shop and start arguing over a pair of trousers "I saw them then first!" "No I want them!". Each pulling at leg, they managed to pull the trousers in two, horrifying the sales assistant.

      At that point, a one legged man hops into the shop and says "Perfect! That's just what I want. I'll buy them!"

      Vic and Olly had of course prearranged for the monopedal gent to arrive when he did.

  8. rkiwi

    No sight in One Eye

    I presume that the device is useless for a person with only sight in one eye?

  9. Omnipresent Bronze badge

    Glassholiolio

    If I'm understanding this correctly, the damn things have a camera apparatus projecting the "real world" into the goggles. Does that make them glass holes 2.0? A camera connected to the spy web observing everything that is happening in real time? maybe even connected to the apple servers?

    Sounds great.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Glassholiolio

      The Google Glass was specifically designed to be worn out and about. This Apple headset less so... it's always had a Home, Office and Aeroplane vibe to it.

      What has changed since Glass is that people are aware that facial recognition software can be and is run on photos posted on social media, or constantly on CCTV camera streams.

      The person with a glowing white shoebox stuck to their face is easier to spot than the person pretending to text on their phone, or the determined pervert with a spycam in his lapel.

      That said, there is some concern here. Apple have recently acquired a company whose software detects and blurs faces and licence plates on the fly.

      Apple do too well from their carefully tended reputation than to suck up footage to their servers for no good reason.

  10. Phil Kingston

    But can anyone tell me what it's actually for?

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      This Mark I model? It's part developer device, part media consumption device. Of course the uses it can be put to will evolve with what developers do with it.

      It's a general purpose computer with cameras, laser scanners, gyrometers and microphones. It's has a high definition HDR stereo display. It can be used hands free and whilst walking.

      So, with a little imagination, you should be able to surmise that it is suitable for tasks that take advantage of these attributes:

      CAD, architectural, interior, landscape, product design. Team collaboration in the above.

      Drone operation.

      New PC interface paradigms - you're not stuck in a chair.

      Media consumption - it's been compared favourable to more expensive television sets.

      Planning a really cool model railway set that goes around your whole house.

      Consider looking at the iPad as precedent for people here asking "but what's it for?" and looking at the many tasks it is put to today.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Simples !!!

      "But can anyone tell me what it's actually for?"

      Simple, its primary purpose is to allow the wearer to advertise that they have enough disposable income to afford to buy said 'Vison Pro' !!!

      The secondary/tertiary purpose is to complete the set for the 'Apple completist' & maybe do something useful with the 'VR' software. !!!

      :)

  11. Mister Jones

    No mention of......

    ....the software needed to make this device work.......

    Ah.....if you thought the hardware was expensive, just wait till you see the software SUBSCRIPTION biils!

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: No mention of......

      Sony are releasing a similar specced headset in conjunction with Siemens NX CAD software. The cost of NX is 280 USD per month per user for the basic package. I note this to give an idea of what the market is.

      However, most CAD suites have free 'viewer' software for other members of the team and clients etc. and usually on iPad.

      We have yet to see developers will create for software for the AVP, one would assume the cost they charge will be a function of what they think they can get away with, the development costs, and the number of customers to share that cost. Some software will fairly simple to create since it will be built atop Apple APIs, akin to ARKit on iOS.

  12. Kev99 Silver badge

    The price alone shows some people have more dollars than sense. Which is true for almost all Apple products.

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