What is Apple's mr head display, and what can Apple Vision Pro do? On June 6, 2023, Apple released a cross-generation virtual reality headset, allowing you to truly feel the charm of technology. Come to Knight Assistant to learn more!
What is Apple's mr head display, and what can Apple Vision Pro do? On June 6, 2023, Apple released a cross-generation virtual reality headset, allowing you to truly feel the charm of technology. Come to Knight Assistant to learn more!
At around 2 a.m. on June 6, Beijing time, the long-awaited MR headset Apple Vision Pro was finally unveiled at the finale of the conference.
Vision Pro is Apple’s first new category of hardware product since the release of Apple Watch in 2015, and it has been called the next epoch-making product in the next decade by Cook. Such a high tone has whetted people's appetite at a time when innovation in consumer electronics is sluggish.
After the product was released, many people cheered, thinking that this was the iPhone moment in the XR field (a collective term for AR, VR and MR), which would bring revolutionary changes to this new track. People in the industry, including those in the industry, were generally excited. Apple will play a role unmatched by other companies in industry innovation and ecological maturity.
But some people have doubts because this is not a very mature product and there are too many problems that need to be solved. Behind Apple's late arrival, it seems more like it is a last resort.
MR means Mixed Reality and is a terminal component of Extended Reality (XR, Extended Reality). Compared with VR virtual reality, MR goes one step further in the integration of virtual environment and real environment, adding various virtual objects and images based on the background of real environment.
Apple claims that this MR is Apple’s first spatial computing device and named it Apple Vision Pro. This MR seamlessly integrates digital content into the real world, allowing users to be in the moment and stay connected with others. Vision Pro creates an infinite canvas, allowing apps to break through the limitations of traditional displays and bring users a new 3D interactive experience that can be controlled with eyes, hands and voice.
In terms of operating system, Vision Pro is equipped with Apple’s world’s first space operating system visionOS. In terms of applicable scenarios, Vision Pro will focus on gaming, office work, communication, etc.
What are the highlights of a 25,000 yuan head display?
This thing that looks like ski goggles is a spatial computing device worn on the head. Unlike the two-dimensional screens that everyone comes into contact with every day, it can use a dial to switch between augmented reality and virtual reality. It does not have our common handles, and the way of interaction is eyes, hands and voice. For example, you can pinch your fingers to select something or flick up to scroll through a browser window, and the entire world in front of you becomes the app's canvas."
Apple has demonstrated to the outside world multiple scenarios that combine the real world and the virtual world. For example, the Safari browser window, messages, and Apple Music window are all presented in front of you, all while hovering over the table in the real world. Even if a colleague comes to deliver items, it will not be affected.
When people wear this device to communicate with others, it will display your eyes through a system called EyeSight, and the camera in the device will capture facial expressions and display them on an external screen. The other party can follow the content displayed on the screen. to determine your status. And if you are using it immersedly, such as watching a movie, the luminous screen will hide your eyes.
Vision Pro can be connected to Apple computers and other devices to present content and applications on these devices in the headset. And it can also be connected with some of Apple’s existing apps. For example, when using FaceTime, Vision Pro can create a real user image through machine learning technology && reflect facial and hand movements in real time. Users can do things together like watch movies, browse photos, or collaborate on presentations.
The entire Vision Pro body contains 12 cameras, 5 sensors, and two 4K Micro OLED displays. Apple uses two chips on this device, one is the M2 that is used in other Apple devices, and the other is the R1 chip specially built for AR. The R1 chip is mainly responsible for transmission. Apple claims that transmitted data can be reached in 12 milliseconds, faster than the blink of an eye. In addition, the headset uses the new operating system VisionOS and has a dedicated app store.
For people who wear glasses, Apple and Zeiss have customized optical inserts that can be magnetically attached to the lenses to meet the needs of people such as myopia.
However, battery life is a big issue. The Vision Pro does not have a battery of its own, but is powered by an external battery that can be carried in your pocket. So, when you put it on your head, there will be a line on the back connected to the battery in your pocket, and the battery life can reach 2 hours.
In addition to battery life, the price of this product is higher than previous market expectations, as high as US$3,499, which is close to RMB 25,000. And it is not in stock. Vision Pro will not be released in the US market until early next year, and users in other countries and regions who want to buy it will have to wait even later.
Exciting XR Entrepreneurship Circle
It is undoubtedly an engineering miracle. The development of the XR industry can finally enter a new stage.
After the release of Vision Pro, domestic XR (collectively, AR, VR and MR) entrepreneurs were extremely excited. Digital Intelligence Frontier learned that although the Apple conference was already early in the morning domestic time, almost all of the domestic entrepreneurial teams in the XR field were watching.
Everyone has been waiting for too long. It has been six or seven years since Apple revealed that it was developing XR devices, and the product release time has been continuously postponed amid outside speculation.
However, the performance of existing players is not satisfactory. Whether it is overseas Meta or domestic ByteDance, although they have invested heavily, their products have not been accepted by the public, and the XR track has not matured. The XR track has been cooling down in the past two years, with many major manufacturers withdrawing and the number and scale of financing also decreasing. Everyone urgently needs players like Apple who have traction in the global consumer market and supply chain to enter.
The XR pool is already being stirred up by Apple. Meta, which was originally released in the fall, rushed to release the new VR product Quest3 before Apple released new products. OPPO also released an MR headset at the end of May, which OPPO regards as the next intelligent computing platform after smartphones.
When it comes to 4K per eye, this is unprecedented. " Ejing CEO Shi Qing told Digital Intelligence Frontier that Apple has achieved ultra-thin design in terms of optics and display, which are leading the industry." Although there were many spoilers before, the press conference still brought surprises to many people.
Apple will push the entire supply chain to develop towards their plan, which will also give surrounding companies room to survive. ” Shi Qing said that he would rush to buy it as soon as it goes on sale. Not surprisingly, Apple's first batch of machines are likely to be snapped up by insiders, including the supply chain and enthusiasts. At present, Ejing has been working on the XR track for 8 years and has made some preparations, hoping to welcome this development opportunity.
Duan Jiaxi, co-founder of Nidejia, told Digital Intelligence Frontier that Apple has strong product definition capabilities. When an industry is still groping, the launch of Apple products will have a directional boost to the entire industry. The entire industry will soon benchmark Apple's first and second generation products, and it may be that the third generation can be aligned with Apple's first generation products. ” Shi Qing said.
The second is to promote the maturity of the supply chain. The entrepreneurial team has almost no say in the supply chain, but a strong Apple can drive the core supply chain to mature, which will also benefit the entire industry. For example, in terms of XR chips, Qualcomm is currently basically used. A few domestic companies have launched XR chips before, but the performance and development tools were not enough, and they have gradually withdrawn.
This is not a product problem, but an industry chain problem. ”An entrepreneur in the XR field said, "We hope that this time Apple will drive a jump in the industry chain and move towards the stage of true human-machine integration." ”
The third is to cultivate consumer habits. After all, XR devices have to be worn on users’ heads, which is not easy for people to accept. However, Apple has a large number of loyal users and a good reputation, and can quickly cultivate user habits.
It is still far away from becoming the next computing platform. ” Duan Jiaxi said frankly. Shi Qing also believes that things made by Apple generally go through two to three generations of iterations before they become truly popular. The iPhone and Apple Watch both went through this stage back then.
Don’t expect Apple to make a product similar to the iPhone right away. ”The above-mentioned entrepreneur said that the development of any industry is based on the continuous accumulation of micro-innovations, which will eventually lead to a breakthrough in the entire industry chain. He believes that the current Vision Pro is more like an iPod moment.
Doubts have not stopped
Although the outside world has high expectations for Apple's new hardware products, many people still believe that the launch of Vision Pro will not have the same sensation as when Steve Jobs released the iPhone.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo bluntly said that compared with AI, investors are obviously less interested in Apple AR/MR headsets, which may still be difficult to make significant revenue and profit contributions to suppliers in the next two years. Investors have recently paid more attention to when Apple will launch a service similar to Chat GPT than Apple AR/MR head-mounted devices. ”
In the eyes of some, Apple's move this time is even a bit risky. AR/VR optics expert Karl Guttag believes that Apple’s development of AR/VR headsets is more likely to be worried about missing out on new technology trends. Looking back at some key AR products in the past, from Google Glass, Magic Leap, and HoloLens, although a lot of research and development costs were invested, the market did not give the expected feedback.
There are even reports that not all Apple executives agreed to host the conference. But Apple has waited too long on this matter and has been criticized for a long time. It can only launch AR/VR technologies that have not been completely perfected because it needs to see how these technologies perform in the real world and how developers and consumers respond to them. reaction. Abovitz said: I think Apple has been on the sidelines for too long. To some extent, they have to be personally involved. ”
Duan Jiaxi told Digital Intelligence Frontline that when Apple first started working on the XR project, it wanted to make AR glasses to become the next generation computing platform after mobile phones. But AR glasses are not yet mature, so Apple had to make an MR headset first.
Judging from existing products and production capacity, this product will not be as popular as Apple’s other products:
First, the high price of US$3,500 directly excludes a large number of people . The people who buy it will be more developers and some enthusiasts who want to try new things. Duan Jiaxi believes that Apple's first batch of devices may be more oriented to development teams, allowing them to launch more applications on them.
Second, the mass production capacity of this product is very limited. The complex process and low production rate make subsequent delivery very difficult. Apple was producing 100 headsets per day in the early stages of development, but only 20 met standards. It was previously reported that Apple’s target has been reduced to 250,000 units. But achieving this goal is not easy. This means that even if many users want to buy it, Apple cannot produce it.
Furthermore, the MR market is still immature in the short term. Although the Pancake optical solution has made VR equipment much thinner and lighter, and the display light source has also transitioned from LCD to OLED, the refresh rate and afterimages have been significantly improved, and VST perspective has made it possible for VR equipment to achieve MR mode. These are quite powerful breakthroughs." .
But Apple is facing a market that is far from mature. Whether it is Microsoft, Google or Meta, they have been working on this track for many years and invested heavily, but they have not achieved the expected success. Google launched Google Glass in 2012. Although it looked very cool at the time, its functions were very limited, its battery life was short, and it has been discontinued. Microsoft launched the AR headset HoloLens in 2016, focusing on the To B market. However, this product also encountered huge problems. From time to time, there were reports in the market that Microsoft would ax the project.
Michael Gartenberg, a former executive in charge of Apple's marketing work, also said that Apple's launch of head-mounted devices is extremely risky. The most important reason is that there is no market for similar products launched by competitors, and even Microsoft's products are not selling well. mediocre.
There are still many problems that AR/VR needs to solve, including large computing chips, heat dissipation, weight, battery life, screen refresh rate, eye tracking, etc. Zuckerberg once said: "Perhaps the most difficult technical challenge of our time is to fit a supercomputer into an ordinary-looking eyeglass frame." It's hard, but it's the key to bringing our physical and digital worlds together. ”
Moreover, the C-end has relatively high requirements for products, which must be lightweight, fashionable, and have a rich ecosystem. Only when these conditions are met, many users will be willing to try it. Unlike the B-side, as long as a demand is met, a manufacturer may pay for it.
Although Apple's optical and display solutions have reached the highest level in the industry, for discerning consumers, these points are far from enough. For example, in addition to optics, how to lower the latency of VST, how to prevent users from feeling dizzy, and how to interact with corresponding content in a closed environment are all difficulties in the industry.
No one doubts Apple's strength. In fact, many people are amazed by the effects displayed by Vision Pro. Moreover, Apple has supply chain integration capabilities and content ecology that are completely unmatched by other companies. As early as 2015, Apple acquired Metaio, a German company engaged in AR application production tools, and later released ARkit, bringing more than 14,000 AR applications to Apple and cultivating a large number of AR developers. Later, Apple successively acquired start-ups in the XR field.
When Apple launched the smart watch Apple Watch and wireless headphones AirPods, it also faced numerous doubts, but Apple ultimately proved its vision. Among them, the sales volume of each generation of Apple Watch exceeds tens of millions, while the sales volume of AirPods exceeds 100 million units, driving the rise of a new electronic category.
But these products are all needs that originally existed in reality, and XR is a brand new track, and no manufacturer has really achieved success here. A not-so-good signal is that after Apple releases a new product, it usually ships in large quantities within a month, but the Vision Pro will not be released until next year. This has rarely happened before, indicating that Apple has not fully done so. Be prepared.
However, Cook seems very confident that today marks the beginning of a new era in computing technology.
The above is a detailed introduction to Apple’s mr head-mounted display equipment. For more related information, come to Knight Assistant to check it out!