The Apple Vision Pro is a dystopian device for a dystopian world

There was Google Glass, a spectacularly failed device that was so wrong that those involved in its creation made Twitter threads explaining why it was wrong. A piece of technology so maligned that – collectively – we’ve decided to actively harass those who wear it. We called them “glass holes”.

Then there’s VR, a technology so sci-fi that its rise felt inevitable, but it wasn’t. Technical limitations and a small install base have made VR the domain of niche hobbyists who mostly use it to play Beat Saber two or three times a year. That’s pretty much it.

I should know I was that person. I in the morning this person. I backed the first Oculus Rift on Kickstarter. I’ll never forget the giddy joy I felt when I unboxed the development kit for the first time. It felt like the future, but months later it was already gathering dust. Just like every VR headset I’ve acquired since, including – most recently – the PSVR2 headset I got a few months ago. I have used it twice since its launch in February this year.

Again, even when people do want to put tech on their face, they inevitably get bored of putting tech on their face.

Over the past decade, we’ve watched VR fail to become a thing. We’ve watched Facebook rebrand as Meta and spend billions of dollars investing in a “metaverse” that no normal person wants to be a part of. Even though we lived through a pandemic that practically locked us in our homes for years, we made it clear that we didn’t want to be sucked into some weird, half-baked virtual world. I’ll play Fortnite of course, but it’s the metauniverse I want to get. At this point, I hardly ever turn on my camera during Zoom meetings.

Apple’s marketing machine is swimming against a strong current. Oddly enough, the price of the Vision Pro could prove to be a saving grace.

By charging $3,500 for an advanced headset, Apple is telling us exactly what the Vision Pro is. This is not a toy for normal people. It’s a dystopian device for a dystopian world. A world where the poor struggle with recession and the rich find new and inventive ways to squander their wealth.

The Vision Pro is not a reasonably priced smartphone. It’s not an iPad Mini. In its press release, Apple seemed determined to avoid the word “headset” instead of consistently referring to it as a “space computer.” Either way, this isn’t a fun disposable device, this is an extremely expensive MacBook that costs tens of thousands of dollars. Or a $17,000 gold Apple Watch like the one Kanye West wore.

As such, the Vision Pro was almost certainly not designed to change the world the way the iPhone was. At this price, it just can’t. At best, it will be a device for well-paid creatives, and at worst, a status symbol for the mega-rich.

Expectations – ours expectations – are part of the problem. We’re on our screens, probably ignoring our kids like idiots, waiting for the next big thing. What piece of consumer technology will transform our lives like the smartphone did? There are a lot of us who expect Apple to do this, as the iPhone was the catalyst that helped define how we currently interact with the world. But it’s pretty clear that virtual reality or augmented reality will no be that thing. The Vision Pro certainly won’t be that thing.

No, unfortunately the Vision Pro is just another device that some people will buy and others won’t. And in a weird way, that’s good. As long as you don’t dwell on it too long.

Which I won’t do.