Apple’s $3,500 headset has potential for entertainment. But that’s not its biggest selling point

It’s funny to remember the hype that once surrounded virtual reality in Hollywood and entertainment-adjacent fields.

In the last year, all of the interest and concern about VR and its cousin, augmented reality, was subsumed by the fretful conversation about generative artificial intelligence, and for good reason. The latter issue, driven by the sudden prominence of ChatGPT, became the surprise centerpiece of the writers’ and actors’ strikes. Conversely, no scribe or screen performer is worried about some tech bro in fancy ski goggles coming to steal their job.

But to the degree that the entertainment industry dismisses the potential of VR, or scoffs at it as yesterday’s venture capitalist-funded fad, it does so at its own peril.

This week, Apple launches its much discussed Vision Pro headset, with its official debut coming on Friday. The Tim Cook-run iPhone maker recently invited journalists to its Culver City offices for guided demos, and the reactions have been generally positive. People who have tried the device have praised its technology and design, with some reservations regarding certain practical aspects of its usability.

The Cupertino tech giant has much work to do to win over skeptics after Cook’s presentation of the new product last June, but there are positive signs. Bullish Apple analyst Dan Ives told clients in a report last week that he expects Apple to sell and ship about 600,000 units this year, raising his estimate from 460,000.

The price, starting at $3,499, means that this product is clearly not aimed at the general market. Consumers will whet their curiosity at Apple Store demos, but the target audience for this rollout is largely Apple loyalists, power users and developers. That said, technology tends to get more accessible down the road and it’s widely expected that Apple will eventually offer more affordable headsets.

And the content, at least in theory, should get more varied and appealing once more studios and developers get to play around with it. That’s how the iPad went from a mere curiosity to a successful line of business.

Conventional wisdom says that consumers’ way into the world of VR and AR is through entertainment, whether that means playing games or watching movies and TV shows in a virtual theater. That’s where Hollywood comes into the picture. After trying the device, I’m not so sure that’s the most attractive path for the typical user. But more on that later.

The product comes with a number of entertainment capabilities at launch, including a bespoke Disney+ app that takes advantage of Vision Pro’s abilities.

It’s the latest collaboration between Disney and Apple, which have a long history of working together dating back to when the Burbank giant became the first studio to sell its shows and movies on iTunes. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs became Disney’s largest individual shareholder after selling Pixar to Bob Iger, representing a dramatic mending of a relationship that had frayed between the two companies during the Michael Eisner era. Iger wrote in his memoir that if Jobs had lived, Disney and Apple might have merged.

The Disney+ app allows the user to watch a film in an immersive digital environment. You can watch “A New Hope,� for example, in a 3-D theater resembling the desert planet Tatooine, the childhood home of Luke and Anakin Skywalker. The Disney+ interface places the viewer in a landspeeder like the one Luke drives in the film. The experience is a little like attending a drive-in movie in space. There’s a novelty to it, and for some superfans, I could see an element of wish fulfillment there. Marvel fans can also watch a film at Avengers Tower.

It’s a cool feature. I doubt I’ll ever want to watch a 2 ½ hour movie this way, especially in one sitting, but it’s an appealing idea that showcases the potential for studios to get creative with their intellectual property. Imagine if Apple created a special feature for Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated “Killers of the Flower Moon,� one in which the user could step onto the Oklahoma set and shadow the director while he works with Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone.

There are several other examples of entertainment-related experiences. Users can stand in front of Jon Favreau-created digital dinosaurs, step into an Alicia Keys rehearsal or do a mindfulness meditation with spa music. People might want to watch a baseball game from the dugout or do a virtual fitness class.

But it might take awhile for Vision Pro to catch on, even among the more tech-savvy studios. Netflix has opted not to make a native app for Apple’s new toy, with co-Chief Executive Greg Peters telling the publication Stratechery that the product is “so subscale that it’s not really particularly relevant to most of our members.�

There are some hardware limitations too. The device, at 600-650 grams, feels a little heavy to wear for long stretches of time. The sensation I felt was as if my face was being pulled down in front. The headset is attached to a battery pack that’s about the size of an iPhone, which could make mobility a challenge to get used to.

The other major hurdle to broader adoption is the general social awkwardness of wearing a big black screen over your visage, especially when other people are around. Apple attempts to work around these issues, allowing users to see someone who’s in the room with them even while using the apps. The device’s EyeSight feature (a display that shows the user’s eyes to others) is meant to counteract the weirdness of being around someone who’s got a computer on their face.

Overall, Vision Pro’s software is relatively intuitive and easy to use. You select apps by pinching your fingers on the virtual icons, a little like Tom Cruise moving digital stuff around in the air in “Minority Report.� The company refers to this as “spatial computing,� rather than VR or AR. Apple is not attempting to create a virtual world of 3-D spaces, or “metaverse,� as Facebook parent Meta has been. Apple’s idea is for a hybrid experience where users have digital experiences, but they’re still operating and interacting in this world.

Where I could see this technology really catching on is in its more mundane and everyday applications. The real functionality appears to be either in the workplace and casual home use, aiding, for example, in the idle time people spend scrolling through personal photos and videos.

And that might be an underappreciated part of the experience. Exploring photographed and video-recorded memories of your family in 3-D? Returning to a vacation spot by stepping into a panoramic photo you took during a trip to Yellowstone? There’s potential for something big there.

Apple’s advantage is how well its various products and software connect and work together across its full ecosystem. As with so many technological advancements, entertainment may be the shiny object that draws people’s attention at first. But the stuff that tugs at the heartstrings is what could make these devices stick.

There are many things Disney and Apple have in common. One is the importance of customer loyalty, the quality of the product and protecting a pristine brand in a way that gets consumers to have an emotional connection with a corporate entity. It’s the sentimental bits that could get real consumers hooked in the long run. Jobs, as the sire of both Apple and Pixar, would understand this.

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Stuff we wrote

Los Angeles Times owner appoints Terry Tang as interim editor. The paper’s owner moves quickly to name the new leader to settle a newsroom roiled by massive layoffs. Tang becomes the paper’s first female editor.

Vince McMahon steps down from TKO, parent of WWE and UFC, amid sexual assault claims. After an allegation of assault and sex trafficking, the wrestling mogul has resigned as executive chairman of TKO Group, the company formed last year in a $21.4 billion merger between WWE and UFC. McMahon has denied the allegations.

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The docket

• Judge rules Fox News can go ahead with counterclaim against Smartmatic.
• SAG-AFTRA defends Alec Baldwin after ‘Rust’ criminal charge.

Number of the week

Microsoft is shedding 1,900 jobs in its gaming division following its purchase of “Call of Duty� publisher Activision Blizzard. Oh, the wonders of corporate consolidation. This comes amid widespread layoffs across the video game industry, which saw more than 10,000 people thrown out of work during the last year. Los Angeles-based Riot Games recently cut 530 roles.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal lost $825 million on its streaming service Peacock during the fourth quarter, which is less than the $978 million it lost during the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased 57% to exceed $1 billion. Peacock added 3 million subscribers to end the quarter with 31 million.

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Finally ...

Last week was a profoundly difficult one at the Los Angeles Times. The company sent layoff notices to about 115 of my esteemed colleagues, and our news organization is, sadly, not unique in this respect, as described in this Jack Shafer Politico piece.

Business Insider is slashing staff. Sports Illustrated is essentially gutted. Workers at Forbes and New York Daily News went on strike to protest impending cuts.

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