John Ternus Defends the Vision Pro
by Horace Dediu
It's an anomaly. Pay attention to anomalies.
In a new interview, Clique TV’s Mouloud Achour asked Ternus: “The Vision Pro: for you is it a test, a flop, or the first step to the future of what’s going to be…a computer?”
Here’s what Ternus said:
"Vision Pro to me is an amazing device. It’s an absolutely amazing device. But I think of it as like the early days of computers. It is the early days of a long journey. That’s how I feel about Vision Pro. What you see, if you think about the early days, people found different reasons where the computer allowed them, the Mac allowed them to do something never before possible. Like desktop publishing, and it became a big thing in that industry.
What you’re seeing with Vision Pro now is, certainly there’s early adopters who love it and they’re using it and they’re enjoying it, but you also—surgeons are starting to use it in surgery because it’s just a fundamentally better tool for them than a monitor that’s kind of sitting over here. And so it’s growing in that area. In film production people are using it for set development and things like that. So we’re going to continue to grow and find more and more compelling use cases. And I think there’s a very bright future."
Source: 9to5Mac
NB: Tim Cook launched and supported the Vision Pro while…
… many said it should cancelled due to poor sales. I argued recently that it's an anomaly. A phenomenon that has no explanation using the theories we currently have. When an anomaly emerges it should be studied carefully because either it refutes our theories or it enhances them by refining them.
Apple's interest in this category of visual computing (or spatial computing, as Apple calls it) is deeply seated. Apple exists at the intersection of humans and computers and the visual representation of information is the most compelling and highest bandwidth way of interacting with machines. We are fundamentally vision-based lifeforms and interfaces that maximize stimulation of the visual cortex are most likely to be adopted. For a simple demonstration of this one can simply ask about the physiology of reading and why we have binocular vision and how cave paintings came so early in our history.
The interest in this product is not for its revenue potential but for its guidance into how we will connect with and through machines. The learning required perhaps cannot be obtained entirely in a laboratory.
3 comments
Sacto Joe ·
There are a few areas outside my area of expertise that I have high interest in: Among them, SC (spatial computing), and PCC (personal cloud computing).
Both stem from my interest in mechanical design. I presently do computer solid modeling, the end result of which is developing a virtual mechanical model that is virtually viewable only in two dimensions. Rather obviously, if one has gone to the trouble of building a three dimensional model, it would be extremely useful to view it in three dimensions.
Of course, there are negative aspects to the Vision Pro, one being cost, and another being, for me, proprietary issues.
I would dearly love to be able to design, model, and test with my Vision Pro, and I think we are very close to integrating AI and spatial video in a way that keeps proprietary information secure and simultaneously permits high level virtual testing even for those of moderate means such as myself.
hmlong ·
I have several ideas for the Vision Pro I'd like to try, but Apple has locked down the camera APIs for Enterprise use only.
rbgayle ·
As I recall, there was supposedly a debate at Apple over the AVP and smart glasses. Both would take many years to get into the form Apple could support as a mass product. But instead of picking one over the other, Apple choose both. The AVP was further along as a reality, even if very expensive. Someone may have made the decision to get the AVP on the market, as just a niche device, to test what the market might look like, to put a stake in the ground for the tech, and, most importantly, to start growing the spatial computing eggs needed for the AR/VR chicken to grow. While Apple may not be expanding the number of AVP sold a lot, it is not losing money on them and can take the time for the real world to catch up. When the Apple glasses are ready, so will spatial computing (I just watched the latest spatial MLB baseball game. It is an amazing experience), because the AVP served as a necessary bridge. developers have had more experience with this and will be ready for the smart glasses, which Gurman says could come next year.