Riding the VR Wave: Why I'm Still Bullish on Apple Vision Pro

The Vision Pro has been out in the US since February and is finally available in France this week. Let's start with the obvious: It didn't change the industry like we expected. We've been waiting for years for Apple to enter the space, but they got the marketing wrong and failed on big things like price and comfort. It's a very expensive dev kit when we expected an amazing consumer device.

Crunchbase recently showed that money going to startups in Metaverse, AR and VR has dropped a lot. In 2022, these startups got almost $4 billion in total funding with about 380 rounds. But in 2023, it fell to just under $2 billion with way fewer rounds. And 2024 is looking even worse so far. If you've been in the industry for a while, you know it's always had its ups and downs, and we're clearly at the trough of the wave.

I recently had a chat with a friend from my engineering school that led me to write this post. We hadn't seen each other in a few years, and when I told him about the state of the VR/AR industry and that I was still in it, he was like, "You're still hanging in there?" And it's true that I have been hanging in there for a while. I think a lot of people left the industry in the past few years, sadly because of the lack of opportunities or the metaverse overhype. I decided to stay and give it another chance with the Vision Pro.

The question now is, is it worth it to keep fighting in this space? After 10 years, is it maybe time to move on and do something else? Maybe AI, like everyone is suggesting? If we go back to the roots of the VR space and what made me come to it, it's the creativity and the belief that it would change the way we work and interact with each other. We're clearly not there yet, and we don't know how long it will take.

There are some good signs though: VR gaming is growing well (Thank you, Gorilla Tag) with Meta leading the way. But there's still a place for a premium device, and that's where the Vision Pro comes in. We're expected to see a new Vision product by the end of 2025. I think Apple has a card to play in the entertainment space and for businesses that rely heavily on Apple products for productivity.

I don't believe it's a good idea to wait that long before exploring the space. It's the perfect opportunity for a very small team to iterate on the Vision Pro and find their niche. The device is amazing and the APIs are evolving every year. Especially with visionOS 2, we have an improved RealityKit and ARKit to do something amazing fast. The tools available are the main reason I'm still bullish on the Vision Pro. While the hardware has issues, visionOS is the best OS, period. Writing an app for it, especially doing UI, is so much faster than doing that with Unity3D. Being faster at shipping apps means it's faster to iterate, and that's all I'm asking!

Maybe we're not changing the world yet, but we're getting there, step by step. The Vision Pro might not be perfect, but it's a start. For those of us who've been in VR for a while, it's exciting to see a big player like Apple jumping in. Sure, they didn't nail it on the first try, but that's okay. The same thing happened with the iPhone and the Watch! I'm personally betting on the Vision Pro because I see it as the best platform to build great apps from a developer point of view, and I want to be ready when the next version comes out. Time will tell if I was right to do so!

So yeah, I'm still hanging in there. Despite all the ups and downs, I still believe VR has the potential to change how we work and connect with each other. It might take longer than we thought, but I think it'll be worth the wait. And who knows? Maybe the next big VR breakthrough will come from those of us crazy enough to keep believing in the tech.