By WU Yangyu, XU Shiqi
Apple released its mixed-reality goggles - Apple Vision Pro - this week. Despite the high price (25,000 yuan) and short battery life, all geeks and digital product makers are still excited to see how far it can mix the reality with visions.
CAI Tianyi, founder of Versa APP, an AI tool that can spot items in pictures, said he has gone through Vision Pro’s developer guidelines and its demonstration videos several times. Apple has not opened Vision Pro’s software development kit, so Cai can’t test his ideas out yet.
According to the guidelines, all apps from iPads and iPhones will run in Vision Pro on its VisionOS.
Apple’s SwiftUI and Unity platforms also help developers try new Vision Pro apps.
“Both platforms are mature. We won’t simply move our apps from the phones to the goggles, but will try something new,” said Cai. “And others will probably want the same.”
Indie game developer Lemon Jam focuses on augmented reality. When iPhone first unlocked its AR feature, Lemon Jam made a workout game called “Go! Calorie!” The game made it to the recommendation list in the App Store but according to founder CAO Daochi, not many people were interested in playing AR games on their phone.
“We are considering to move the game to Vision Pro, where the experience will be totally different. Though we have to wait for Apple to release the complete developer files,” said Cao.
The widespread fear is that Vision Pro might turn out to be another Apple Watch, which no one is interested in. The most popular extended reality goggles currently come from Meta Quest, but Vision Pro is ten times more expensive than Meta Quest.
“Apple made a lot of money from the watch, but users don’t pay much attention to the apps,” said Cai. “and the watch is just an alternative to the phone.”
Vision Pro will go on sale in the US next year. Chinese users may have to wait longer.
“iPhone is so successful partially because of the App Store ecosystem,” said Laomai, founder of digital SNS SSPAI.com. “Vision Pro must build its own developer community from scratch, that will be a tough task.”
