CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple kicked off the keynote for its annual developer conference by announcing a new version of visionOS, the operating system that runs on the company’s pricey but impressive Vision Pro mixed reality headset.
The updates in visionOS 2 are modest, not revolutionary—mostly iterative changes, quality-of-life improvements, and some features that were originally expected in the first version of visionOS. That’s not too surprising given that visionOS just went out to users four months ago.
Vision Pro users hoping for multiple virtual Mac monitors will be disappointed that’s not planned this time around, but Apple plans to add the next-best thing: Users will be able to take advantage of a larger and higher-resolution single virtual display, including a huge, wraparound ultrawide monitor mode that Apple says is equivalent to two 4K monitors.
There’s one major machine learning-driven feature: You will soon be able to convert 2D images into 3D spatial ones in the Photos app, even photos you took years and years ago, long before iPhones could take spatial photos. (Apple also announced that a new Canon DSLR camera will get a spatial photo lens, as another option for taking new spatial photos.)
Other notable improvements include support for using travel mode on trains instead of just airplanes and a simple finger gesture to open the home screen so you don’t have to invoke Siri or reach up to press a physical button on the headset.
A lot of the improvements that will lead to better apps come in the form of new developer APIs that will facilitate apps that really take advantage of the spatial features rather than just being flat 2D windows floating around you—something we noted as a disappointment when we shared our impressions of the device. Some APIs help create shared spatial experiences with other Vision Pro users who aren’t in the same room as you. One of those, TabletopKit, is focused on creating apps that sit on a 2D surface, like board and card games.
There will also be new enterprise-specific APIs for things like surgical training and manufacturing applications.
Finally, Apple says Vision Pro is going international. It will go on sale in China (including Hong Kong), Japan, and Singapore on June 13 and in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK on June 28.
There was no specific release date named for visionOS 2.
Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, kicks off in Cupertino, California, next week. As always, it will start with a livestream keynote on Monday morning at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern. We’ll be in attendance reporting on the event, so let’s take a moment to take stock of what we expect to see next week.
But first, let’s note something we don’t think we’ll see: Due to some peculiarities about Apple’s upgrade cycles, as well as a push toward the M4, we’re not actually expecting any major hardware announcements at WWDC this year.
That’s OK, though, because it looks like it’s going to be a big one for software news. iOS has seen relatively modest updates in the past couple of years, but that’s about to change.
AI in the spotlight
Most of the rumors leading up to WWDC have been about Apple making plans to announce tons of generative AI features for its platforms. Part of that is because AI is the hot topic right now, so anything about that is bound to get some coverage. However, according to leaks reported on by Bloomberg, The Information, and others, it looks like Apple is going to make a conscious effort to reposition itself as a leader in AI.
Apple was already doing neat things with machine learning in iOS and elsewhere, like features that make image editing easier, smart recommendations, and more. But there have been major new developments in models lately that allow for many new options, as we’ve seen from others like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft.
We don’t know many details about exactly what Apple will do here beyond it being a focus. The company has published several papers related to new large-language model chatbots, major Siri improvements, image generation, and more, but it’s hard to tell what will become user-facing features.
Possibilities include auto-generated summaries in apps like Mail, new ways to block ads or interact with websites in Safari, GitHub Copilot-like code editing assistance in Xcode, clip art generation for iWork documents, more conversational and larger-scope answers from Siri, new image editing features, expanded accessibility features, new transcription capabilities, and more.
Apple has reportedly been in talks with companies like OpenAI and Google (it even sounds like a deal has already been reached with OpenAI) about augmenting Siri and other parts of the iOS or macOS experience with an external AI chatbot. Apple has reportedly experimented with its own chatbot, but it’s unlikely that one would be far enough along to be a strong alternative to the likes of ChatGPT. At a minimum, expect Apple to partner with at least one company (probably OpenAI) as a provider for out-of-scope answers to queries asked of Siri or in Spotlight.
There have been rumblings that Apple could offer users a choice of multiple AI providers or launch an AI App Store, but we don’t know for sure how it will all take shape.
iOS and iPadOS 18
iOS 18 (and its close sibling, iPadOS 18) will roll out later this year alongside new iPhones, likely in September or October. But WWDC is the first time we’ll get a look at the major features Apple has planned.
Typically, Apple announces most new iOS features during the upcoming keynote, but it might save a couple that are are related to as-yet unannounced iPhone hardware for later.
The rumor mill this year points to an overhaul of both Control Center and Settings, plus the aforementioned inclusion of numerous new machine learning, LLM, or image generation features. One rumored example of how AI could be used in iOS described a new home screen that allows users to quickly recolor app icons to create a consistent color palette across their phone. Apple might even allow users to place icons wherever they want, addressing the irritating “wobble mode” home screen management that we’ve criticized in our iOS reviews for years.
Expect big new features for Messages, too, like new text effects and formatting options. There’s also a strong possibility that Apple will go into detail about RCS support in iOS. Generative AI could allow users to create custom emojis or stickers, too.
There were also a few rumors that Apple will make some visual changes to iOS, borrowing a bit from the visual language we saw in visionOS this spring.
Oh, and one more thing: iPadOS is finally getting a calculator app. We’re not sure why that took so long, but there it is.
Enlarge/ A blurry, ghostly Persona in visionOS 1.0. They should at least look less bad in visionOS 1.1.
Samuel Axon
Apple has released a long list of medium-sized software updates for most of its devices today. The macOS Sonoma 14.4, watchOS 10.4, tvOS 17.4, and visionOS 1.1 updates are all available now, and most of them add at least one or two major features as they fix multiple bugs and patch security vulnerabilities.
The visionOS 1.1 release is the first major update for Apple’s newest operating system, and as our coverage of the headset has demonstrated, there’s still plenty of low-hanging fruit to fix. Most notably for people who are trying to use the headset for work meetings, Apple says that there have been multiple changes to the look of Personas, the 3D avatars that show up in your place when you’re video chatting with the Vision Pro on your face. The update improves “hair and makeup appearance,” “neck and mouth representation,” and “rendering of the eyes,” and while it’s clear that it’s an improvement over the 1.0 release of Personas, the core uncanniness still seems to be intact. The Persona feature is still labeled as a beta.
Apple has also made tweaks to the appearance and functionality of the headset’s virtual keyboard, improved the Virtual Display feature’s Mac connectivity, and added a handful of mobile device management features for IT administrators.
Apple’s headlining feature for macOS 14.4 is the addition of new Unicode 15.1 emoji, plus podcast transcriptions in the Apple Music app. It’s unclear whether this release enables multiple external displays for users of the $1,599 M3 MacBook Pro, a feature that Apple announced alongside the new M3 MacBook Airs.
Apple Watch owners can look forward to the resolution of one annoying bug I’ve run into a few times on my own watch: a bug that would make the screen act as though it was receiving touch input even when you weren’t touching it. Sometimes referred to as a “ghost touch” or “phantom touch” bug, the only way to get it to go away was to reboot the watch. I haven’t noticed the bug since I installed one of the later watchOS 10.4 betas a couple of weeks ago.
Version 17.4 of the HomePod operating system now allows users to set their preferred music service, so telling Siri to play music will automatically use whatever service you want instead of defaulting to Apple Music unless you specify. The tvOS 17.4 update doesn’t appear to include any particular features or fixes of note.
All of the new releases follow iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4, which came out a few days ago with mostly minor changes unless you happened to live in the European Union. For European users, that update ushers in Apple’s first attempt at compliance with new regulations that require the company to allow the use of third-party app stores, alternate browsing engines, and sideloaded apps. These changes come with plenty of conditions and caveats, as Apple seeks to remain the ultimate arbiter of what software can and can’t run on iPhones and iPads.
There are two displays inside the Vision Pro, one for each eye. Each offers just under 4K resolution.
Samuel Axon
This is the infamous battery pack. It’s about the size of an iPhone (but a little thicker), and it has a USB-C port for external power sources.
Samuel Axon
There are two buttons for the Vision Pro, both on the top.
Samuel Axon
You can see the front-facing cameras that handle passthrough video just above the downward-facing cameras that read your hand gestures here.
Samuel Axon
Apple offers several variations of the light seal to fit different face shapes.
Samuel Axon
You can get a lot of work done while wearing Apple’s Vision Pro and have fun doing it—but it’s not yet at the stage where most of us will want to fully embrace spatial computing as the new way of working.
I spent more than a week working almost exclusively in the Vision Pro. I carried on Slack conversations, dialed into Zoom video calls, edited Google Docs, wrote articles, and did everything else I do within my day-to-day responsibilities as an editor at Ars Technica.
Throughout the experience, I never stopped thinking about how cool it was, like I was a character in a cyberpunk novel. The Vision Pro opens some new ways of approaching day-to-day work that could appeal to folks with certain sensibilities, and it offers access to some amenities that someone who hasn’t already invested a lot into their home office setup might not already have.
At the same time, though, I never quite zeroed in on a specific application or use case that made me think my normal habit of working on a MacBook Pro with three external monitors would be replaced. If you don’t already have a setup like that—that is to say, if you’ve just been working on a laptop on its own—then the Vision Pro can add a lot of value.
I plan to explore more use cases in the future, like gaming, but this is the last major piece in a series of sub-reviews of the Vision Pro that I’ve done on various applications, like entertainment or as an on-the-go mobile device.
My goal has been to see if the Vision Pro’s myriad use cases add up to $3,500 of value for today’s computing enthusiast. Productivity is front and center in how Apple markets the device, so this is an important one. Let’s see how it holds up.
The basics
Outside the realm of entertainment, visionOS and its apps are mostly about flat windows floating in 3D space. There are very few apps that make use of the device’s 3D capabilities in new ways that are relevant to productivity.
There are two types of visionOS apps: spatial apps and “Compatible Apps.” The former are apps designed to take advantage of the Vision Pro’s spatial computing capabilities, whereas Compatible Apps are simply iPad apps that work just fine as flat windows within the visionOS environment.
Enlarge/ Let’s find out if the Vision Pro can be an adequate replacement for this, my usual work space.
Samuel Axon
In either case, though, you’re usually just getting the ability to put windows around you. For example, I started out by sitting at my kitchen table and putting my writing app in front of me, Slack and my email app off to the side, and a browser window with a YouTube video playing on the other side. This felt a bit like using several large computer monitors, each with an app maximized. It’s cool, and the ability to shift between your real environment and fully immersive virtual ones can help with focus, especially if you do intensive creative work like writing.
If there’s one thing Apple has nailed better than any of its predecessors in the mixed reality space, it’s the interface. Wherever your eyes are looking, a UI element will glow to let you know it’s the item you’ll interact with if you click. Clicking is done by simply tapping two of your fingers together almost anywhere around your body; the headset has cameras all over, so you don’t have to hold your hands up or in front of you to do this. There are also simple pinching-and-moving gestures for scrolling or zooming.
Enlarge/ The Vision Pro has two micro-OLED displays.
Apple
Research firm Omdia has published the first publicly available educated estimates of how much the materials for each Vision Pro really cost Apple. The analysis sets an overall price tag for the materials and identifies which components cost the most money.
Omdia Senior Research Director David Hsieh estimates that the total bill of materials comes in at around $1,542. The consumer price for the headset starts at $3,499 but can be as much as a thousand dollars more than that, depending on the configuration the buyer chooses.
Vision Pro presents both the real and the virtual worlds to the user with two micro-OLED displays, one for each eye. Together, these dual displays are the most expensive component in the headset, costing $456. Another external display (the one used for EyeSight) costs around $70, Hsieh estimates. That means that Omdia estimates the device’s displays account for about 35 percent of the total cost of the device’s materials.
The runner-up category is silicon; a roll-up cost estimate of both the M2 system-on-a-chip and the R1 processor together lands at $240, or just over 15 percent of the total cost of the device’s materials.
You can see the full table of materials in Omdia’s estimate here, as first seen in one of the firm’s blog posts:
No matter how accurate that $1,542 number is, we should steer clear of the temptation to declare that Apple profits $1,957 on each Vision Pro sold for $3,499, as that’s certainly not the case.
A bill of materials like this doesn’t take into account manufacturing, shipping, or marketing, nor does it factor in the cost of research and development. There’s no way to know from these estimates how much profit Apple earns on each Vision Pro sold, but it’s definitely a lot less than the difference between the price tag and the bill of materials.
Apple has historically maintained substantial profit margins on its hardware products like the iPhone, and Vision Pro could follow in those footsteps, or it could be that Vision Pro is anomalous. Only Apple knows for sure. In any case, analysts expect some of these costs to come down with time.
Dive into the comments on those videos and you’ll see a consistent ratio: about 20 percent of the commenters herald this as the future, and the other 80 mock it with vehement derision. “I’ve never had as much desire to disconnect from reality as this guy does,” one reads.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going all-in on trying the Vision Pro in all sorts of situations to see which ones it suits. Last week, I talked about replacing a home theater system with it—at least when traveling away from home. Today, I’m going over my experience trying to find a use for it out on the streets of Chicago.
I’m setting out to answer a few questions here: Does it feel weird wearing it in public spaces? Will people judge you or react negatively when you wear it—and if so, will that become less common over time? Does it truly disconnect you from reality, and has Apple succeeded in solving virtual reality’s isolationist tendencies? Does it provide enough value to be worth wearing?
As it turns out, all these questions are closely related.
The potential of AR in the wild
I was excited about the Vision Pro in the lead-up to its launch. I was impressed by the demo I saw at WWDC 2023, even though I was aware that it was offered in an ideal setting: a private, well-lit room with lots of space to move around.
Part of my excitement was about things I didn’t see in that demo but that I’ve seen augmented reality developers explore in smartphone augmented reality (AR) and niche platforms like HoloLens and Xreal. Some smart folks have already produced a wide variety of neat tech demos showing what you can do with a good consumer AR headset, and many of the most exciting ideas work outside the home or office.
I’ve seen demonstrations of real-time directions provided with markers along the street while you walk around town, virtual assistant avatars guiding you through the airport, menus and Yelp reviews overlaid on the doors of every restaurant on a city strip, public art projects pieced together by multiple participants who each get to add an element to a virtual statue, and much more.
Of course, all those ideas—and most others for AR—make a lot more sense for unintrusive glasses than they do for something that is essentially a VR headset with passthrough. Nonetheless, I was hoping to get a glimpse at that eventuality with the Vision Pro.
The Apple Vision Pro with AirPods Pro, Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and an Xbox Series X|S controller.
Samuel Axon
You can see the front-facing cameras that handle passthrough video just above the down-facing cameras that read your hand gestures here.
Samuel Axon
There are two buttons for Vision Pro, both on the top.
Samuel Axon
This is the infamous battery pack. It’s about the size of an iPhone (but a little thicker) and has a USB-C port for external power sources.
Samuel Axon
There are two displays inside the Vision Pro, one for each eye. Each offers just under 4K resolution.
Samuel Axon
Apple offers several variations of the light seal to fit different face shapes.
Samuel Axon
A close-up look at the Vision Pro from the front.
Samuel Axon
The Vision Pro is the strangest product Apple has introduced in the time I’ve been covering the company. By now, it’s well established that the headset is both impressively cutting-edge and ludicrously expensive.
You could certainly argue that its price means it’s only for Silicon Valley techno-optimists with too much money to burn or for developers looking to get in on the ground floor on the chance that this is the next gold rush for apps. But the platform will need more than those users to succeed.
Part of Apple’s pitch behind the price tag seems to be that the Vision Pro could replace several devices, just like the iPhone did back in the late 2000s. It could replace your laptop, your tablet, your 4K TV, your video game console, your phone or other communications device, your VR headset, and so on. If it truly replaced all of those things, the price wouldn’t seem quite so outrageous to some.
And those are just the use cases Apple has put a lot of effort into facilitating for the launch. Many of the most important uses of the company’s prior new product categories didn’t become totally clear until a couple of years and generations in. The iPhone wasn’t originally intended as a meditation aid, a flashlight, and a number of other common uses until third-party developers invented apps to make it do those things. And Apple’s approach with the Apple Watch seemed to be to just throw it out there with a number of possible uses to see what stuck with users. (The answer seemed to be health and fitness, but the device’s distinct emphasis on that took a bit of time to come into focus.)
So while I could write a dense review meandering through all the possibilities based on my week with the Vision Pro, that doesn’t seem as helpful as drilling in on each specific possibility. This is the first in a series of articles that will do that, so consider it part one of a lengthy, multi-step review. By the end, we’ll have considered several possible applications of the device, and we might be able to make some recommendations or predictions about its potential.
So far, I believe there’s one use case that’s a slam dunk, closer to clarity during launch week than any of the others: entertainment. For certain situations, The Vision Pro is a better device for consuming TV shows and movies (among other things) away from a dedicated theater than we’ve ever seen before. So let’s start there.
My (perhaps too) exacting standards
I know I’m not the usual TV consumer. It’s important to note that before we get too deep.
I bought my first OLED television (a 55-inch LG B6) in 2016. I previously had a 50-inch plasma TV I liked, but it only supported 1080p and SDR (standard dynamic range), and Sony had announced the PlayStation 4 Pro, which would support 4K games (sort of) and HDR (high dynamic range). Game consoles had always driven TV purchases in the past, so I sprung for the best I could afford.
I always cared about picture quality before I bought an OLED, but that interest turned into something more obsessive at that point. I was stunned at the difference, and I began to find it hard to accept the imperfections of LCD monitors and TVs after that. Granted, I’d always disliked LCDs, going straight from CRT to plasma to avoid that grayish backlight glow. But the comparison was even harsher once I went to OLED.
My fellow Ars Technica writers and editors often talk about their robust, multi-monitor PC setups, their expensive in-home server racks, and other Ars-y stuff. I have some of that stuff, too, but I put most of my time and energy into my home theater. I’ve invested a lot into it, and that has the unfortunate side effect of making most other screens I use feel inadequate by comparison.
All that said, some have argued that the Vision Pro is a solution in search of a problem, but there is one pre-existing problem I have that it has the potential to solve.
I travel a lot, so I spend a total of at least two months out of every year in hotel or Airbnb rooms. Whenever I’m in one of those places, I’m always irritated at how its TV compares to the one I have at home. It’s too small for the space, it’s not 4K, it doesn’t support HDR, it’s mounted way too high to comfortably watch, or it’s a cheap LCD with washed-out black levels and terrible contrast. Often, it’s all of the above. And even when I’m home, my wife might want to watch her shows on the big TV tonight.
I end up not watching movies or shows I want to watch because I feel like I’d be doing those shows a disservice by ruining the picture with such terrible hardware. “Better to hold off until I’m home,” I tell myself.
The Vision Pro could be the answer I’ve been waiting for. Those two displays in front of my eyes are capable of displaying an image that stands up to that of a mid-range OLED TV in most situations, and I can use it absolutely anywhere.
Enlarge/ These mounted displays near the entrance let visitors touch, but not use, a Vision Pro.
Kyle Orland
For decades now, potential Apple customers have been able to wander in to any Apple Store and get some instant eyes-on and hands-on experience with most of the company’s products. The Apple Vision Pro is an exception to this simple process; the “mixed-reality curious” need to book ahead for a guided, half-hour Vision Pro experience led by an Apple Store employee.
As a long-time veteran of both trade show and retail virtual-reality demos, I was interested to see how Apple would sell the concept of “spatial computing” to members of the public, many of whom have minimal experience with existing VR systems. And as someone who’s been following news and hands-on reports of the Vision Pro’s unique features for months now, I was eager to get a brief glimpse into what all the fuss was about without plunking down at least $3,499 for a unit of my own.
After going through the guided Vision Pro demo at a nearby Apple Store this week, I came away with mixed feelings about how Apple is positioning its new computer interface to the public. While the short demo contained some definite “oh, wow” moments, the device didn’t come with a cohesive story pitching it as Apple’s next big general-use computing platform.
Setup snafus
After arriving a few minutes early for my morning appointment in a sparsely attended Apple Store, I was told to wait by a display of Vision Pro units set on a table near the front. These headsets were secured tightly to their stands, meaning I couldn’t try a unit on or even hold it in my hands while I waited. But I could fondle the Vision Pro’s various buttons and straps while getting a closer look at the hardware (and at a few promotional videos running on nearby iPads).
Two Vision Pro headsets let you see it from multiple angles at once.
Kyle Orland
Nearby iPads let you scroll through videos and information about the Vision Pro.
Kyle Orland
The outward-facing display is very subtle in person.
Kyle Orland
Without an appointment you can feel the headstrap with your hands but not with your skull.
Kyle Orland
To Apple’s credit, it did not even try to hide the external battery in these store displays.
Kyle Orland
After a few minutes, an Apple Store employee, who we’ll call Craig, walked over and said with genuine enthusiasm that he was “super excited” to show off the Vision Pro. He guided me to another table, where I sat in a low-backed swivel chair across from another customer who looked a little zoned out as he ran through his own Vision Pro demo.
Craig told me that the Vision Pro was the first time Apple Store employees like him had gotten early hands-on access to a new Apple device well before the public, in order to facilitate the training needed to guide these in-store demos. He said that interest had been steady for the first few days of demos and that, after some initial problems, the store now mostly managed to stay on schedule.
Unfortunately, some of those demo kinks were still present. First, Craig had trouble tracking down the dedicated iPhone used to scan my face and determine the precise Vision Pro light seal fit for my head. After consulting with a fellow employee, they decided to have me download the Apple Store app and use a QR code to reach the face-scanning tool on my own iPhone. (I was a bit surprised this fit scanning hadn’t been offered as part of the process when I signed up for my appointment days earlier.)
It took three full attempts, scanning my face from four angles, before the app managed to spit out the code that Craig needed to send my fit information to the back room. Craig told me that the store had 38 different light seals and 900 corrective lens options sitting back there, ready to be swapped in to ensure maximum comfort for each specific demo.
Sorry, I think I ordered the edamame…
Kyle Orland
Shhh… the Vision Pro is napping.
After a short wait, another employee brought my demo unit out on a round wooden platter that made me feel like I was at a Japanese restaurant. The platter was artistically arranged, from the Solo Knit Band and fuzzy front cover to the gently coiled cord leading to the battery pack sitting in the center. (I never even touched or really noticed the battery pack for the rest of the demo.)
At this point, Craig told me that he would be able to see everything I saw in the Vision Pro, which would stream directly to his iPad. Unfortunately, getting that wireless connection to work took a good five minutes of tapping and tinkering, including removing the Vision Pro’s external battery cord several times.
Once everything was set, Craig gave me a brief primer on the glances and thumb/forefinger taps I would use to select, move, and zoom in on things in the VisionOS interface. “You’re gonna pretend like you’re pulling on a piece of string and then releasing,” he said by way of analogy. “The faster you go, the faster it will scroll, so be mindful of that. Nice and gentle, nice and easy, and things will go smoothly for you.”
Fifteen minutes after my appointed start time, I was finally ready to don the Vision Pro.
A scripted experience
After putting the headset on, my first impression was how heavy and pinchy the Vision Pro was on the bridge of my nose. Thankfully, Craig quickly explained how to tighten the fit with a dial behind my right ear, which helped immediately and immensely. After that, it only took a minute or two to run through some quick calibration of the impressively snappy eye and hand tracking. (“Keep your head nice and still as you do this,” Craig warned me during the process.)
Enlarge/ Imagine this but with an Apple Store in the background.
Kyle Orland
As we dove into the demo proper, it quickly became clear that Craig was reading from a prepared script on his iPhone. This was a bit disappointing, as the genuine enthusiasm he had shown in our earlier, informal chat gave way to a dry monotone when delivering obvious marketing lines. “With Apple Vision Pro, you can experience your entire photo library in a brand new way,” he droned. “Right here, we have some beautiful shots, right from iPhone.”
Craig soldiered through the script as I glanced at a few prepared photos and panoramas. “Here we have a beautiful panorama, but we’re going to experience it in a whole new way… as if you were in the exact spot in which it was taken,” Craig said. Then we switched to some spatial photos and videos of a happy family celebrating a birthday and blowing bubbles in the backyard. The actors in the video felt a little stilted, but the sense of three-dimensional “presence” in the high-fidelity video was impressive.
After that, Craig informed me that “with spatial computing, your apps can exist anywhere in your space.” He asked me to turn the digital crown to replace my view of the store around me with a virtual environment of mountains bathed in cool blue twilight. Craig’s script seemed tuned for newcomers who might be freaked out by not seeing the “real world” anymore. “Remember, you’re always in control,” Craig assured me. “You can change it at any time.”
From inside the environment, Craig’s disembodied voice guided me as I opened a few flat app windows, placing them around my space and resizing them as I liked. Rather than letting these sell themselves, though, Craig pointed out how webpages are “super beautiful [and] easy to navigate” on Vision Pro. “As you can also see… text is super sharp, super easy to read. The pictures on the website look stunning.” Craig also really wanted me to know that “over one million iPhone/iPad apps” will work like this on the Vision Pro on day one.
Enlarge/ Vision Pro will allow users to watch movies on a virtual TV set.
Apple
In the leadup to Vision Pro preorders tomorrow, Apple has seemingly been prioritizing the message that the device will be an ideal way to watch movies and TV shows. In many ways, that might be true, but there’s one major caveat: Netflix.
In a statement reported by Bloomberg today, Netflix revealed that it does not plan to offer an app for Vision Pro. Instead, users will have to use a web-based interface to watch the streaming service.
Netflix compares the experience to the Mac, but there are a few reasons this won’t be an ideal experience for users. First, the iPad and iPhone mobile apps support offline viewing of downloaded videos. That’s particularly handy for when you’re flying, which is arguably one of the best use cases for Vision Pro.
Unfortunately, Netflix doesn’t support offline downloads on the web. It also remains to be seen what resolution will be achievable—the maximum resolution of a Netflix stream depends on the browser, with most capping out at 720p. That wouldn’t look so great on a 100-foot virtual screen.
Granted, Netflix streams at up to 4K on Safari for macOS, but we don’t know if that will be the case for Safari on Vision Pro.
It will also make launching the app more complicated, and the interface won’t be as nice to use as a native app.
There are two ways Netflix could have supported visionOS more directly. The company could have developed a full-fledged mixed reality app like Disney+ did, with visionOS-specific features. Or it could have at least adapted its iPad app to work well within visionOS.
The latter, while not completely trivial, is relatively easy for a company with Netflix’s development resources, so it’s hard not to see this as a deliberate snub.
This isn’t the first time Netflix has chosen not to play nice with a new Apple initiative. Netflix is the most notable service missing from Apple’s useful TV app on Apple TV and iPhone, which aggregates your viewing activity and makes recommendations that link out to individual streaming apps.
Netflix and Apple now compete in the streaming space. In particular, both have courted awards for their original films with limited theatrical releases and aggressive campaigns. That could be a motivator, but we can’t know what Netflix’s leadership is thinking for sure.
Most other major streaming services, including Disney+, Peacock, Max, and Amazon Prime Video, will have working visionOS apps when the device launches in early February, making Netflix a notable outlier.
While not a deal-breaker for everyone, the omission cuts at the heart of Apple’s messaging around Vision Pro’s value proposition; the steep $3,499 price could be seen as worth the investment if you see the device as replacing both an iPad and a high-end TV. But that pitch is a little bit compromised if the experience on that high-end TV is subpar for one of the most popular streaming services.
