Apple's Vision Pro pricey, but likely to usurp Meta's Quest headset - expert

The director of an Auckland virtual reality studio expects Apple's new gadget to be a game-changer.

Apple's Vision Pro will be the tech giant's first new smart device since 2015's Apple Watch - a pair of eye- and gesture-controlled goggles that blend virtual apps with the real world.

Auckland-based studio Conical director Alejandro Davila said he and his colleagues had anticipated an Apple product for years.

"It's very exciting for me as a developer just to see Apple enter the market finally," he said. "Usually with these kinds of technologies, whenever Apple does it we know that it's serious."

The virtual and augmented reality sector had struggled to break into the mainstream, with Facebook-owner Meta leading the charge to mixed success.

Davila said consumer interest in virtual reality had taken a dive in recent years.

"We had a bit of a dip," he said. "When VR started to become more mainstream back in 2016 there was a huge hype, but then we could see a bit of a decline."

He hoped Apple could do for VR and AR what it had done for tablets and smartwatches. But the Vision Pro's hefty price tag is already raising eyebrows.

When it releases in the United States next year, the headset will cost NZ$5765 (US$3500). By the time it reaches New Zealand, GST will likely have pushed it far beyond $6000.

The headset will also last just two hours before it needs to be recharged.

"[It's] eye-popping," tech commentator Dan Watson told Afternoons. "It looks like a set of really expensive snowboarding goggles."

But Watson believed the Vision Pro would catch on, eventually.

"I think there's probably going to be quite a deep long-term market for this kind of thing," he said. "I think we'll have to wait for the second or third generations before we start seeing it in the mass market."

Although Davila was a firm believer in the technology, he expected the price would discourage everyone but the most committed early adopters.

"I believe it'll be similar to the Apple Watch," he said. "When it first came on the market some people started to use it, but it wasn't until the third or fourth iteration that we saw everyone wear those."

He hoped future iterations would cater to people on a budget.

"It should become as cost effective as an iPhone, I think," he speculated. "We may be able to see some 'lite' headsets coming up."

Conical's current focus is on Meta's 'Quest' headset, which is significantly cheaper than Apple's competitor, but Davila expects the Vision Pro to become a new priority for his company going forward.

"It's been really interesting this year - we've received quite a few requests already from people preparing, wanting to be in the AR and VR space with Apple."

Apple had already been priming developers for the new hardware, he said.

"Apple has been really clever in empowering developers like us when they released this thing called the ARKit."

Developers have been able to access Apple's ARKit tools for several years to develop augmented reality apps for the iPhone, but Davila expected that same technology to power the Vision Pro.

"Now that they've released this hardware, they can bring in all those [apps] into the new Vision headset," he said.

Dan Watson told Afternoons he was impressed by the Vision Pro's potential.

"The demonstrations you can see online are really quite awesome," he said.

"There are some really cool applications for this kind of thing. Google has one where it's essentially doing in-built translation, they call it 'subtitles for the world'. Or if somebody is deaf, being able to use the device's own microphones to produce text from someone speaking."

Apple says the Vision Pro will be released in the United States "early next year", with more countries receiving the product "later next year."