Apple Vision Pro – A New Era

After many years in development, today marked the launch of Apple Vision Pro. The beginning of a spatial computing era. Future posts will delve into what that means, but for now I’ll share a couple of Apple’s recent adverts and some thoughts.

The first one, above, was released in advance of the launch. It’s a clever tease, using a bunch of movie, television and pop culture references to goggles to generate some excitement. People who follow tech or all things Apple may be familiar with what the product is, but most do not. To date only a very small number of people have seen or experienced Apple Vision Pro.

The follow-up advert started to appear a few days before launch. It starts to give people an idea of what Vision Pro looks like and what it’s like to use it. Part of the challenge of a first-of-its kind product is that people, including app developers, haven’t had one before…. Nobody is really sure what people are going to be able to do with it yet.

Same As It Ever Was

When announcing the original iPhone in January 2007, Steve Jobs pitched it as three things. A widescreen iPod (digital music player) with touch controls, a mobile phone, and an internet communications device. Those things were true, but they turned out to be the very least of what iPhone can do. Now in 2024, Apple finds itself in that space again. The stuff they show in the Apple Vision Pro advert look pretty fancy and cool, but in the not-too-distant future people will probably look back and see that it’s the least of what it can do. Click here to check out Apple’s product page.

It has been nearly four years since my last post. It is also the first in a new Spatial Computing category on this site. I’m excited to talk about the idea of a spatial computer. I will talk about that long gap and the new direction of the site in the days and weeks ahead. This is an exciting time in art and technology, and I look forward to diving in deeper.