Mark Zuckerberg may be laughing at the competition in the AR/VR headset market, but Apple's Vision Pro is gaining attention, at least among developers. Greg Jozwiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said Tuesday. announced on X says its “spatial computing” headset comes with more than 1,000 apps specifically designed to take advantage of the new hardware. That's more than the 600-plus apps Apple announced just two weeks ago would be available at device launch, and far more than the 150-plus apps that were available in the days leading up to the Vision Pro's launch. There is.
Aside from Zuckerberg's obviously biased opinion, the review calls the Vision Pro the best mixed reality headset on the market, but while it's still in the early stages of development, the $3,500 price point is a good buy for developers. It could mean that the market is limited. However, App Store data shows that more than half of developers use a paid app business model, rather than freemium, in-app purchases, or subscriptions, like other sites on the App Store. This means that even if only a few hundred customers download the app, they can still earn a guaranteed income from their work.
Vision Pro can run over 1.5 million compatible iOS and iPad apps, but the spatial apps built for the headset are those designed to take advantage of its specific capabilities. This includes many streaming apps such as Disney+, ESPN, MLB, PGA Tour, Max, Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock, Pluto TV, Tubi, Fubo, Crunchyroll, Red Bull TV, IMAX, TikTok, MUBI, and more. included. (Netflix is not worth mentioning).
The PGA Tour, MLS, NBA, Red Bull TV, and more are also developing apps for new devices, as are productivity app makers like Microsoft, Slack, Notion, Zoom, and WebEx. But many independent software developers are also embracing new platforms, like Christian Selig building his YouTube app called Juno, or working on areas that don't yet have much competition, such as fitness, science, and mindfulness. We are bridging the gap by doing things like Among other things.
Jordi Bruin, one of the developers, created a Persona Studio app that allows users to view and record their “personas” (3D avatars that they use when communicating with other users through Vision Pro). We're also working on improving areas where Pro falls short. Apple's version of Persona makes people look weird and unlike themselves, and Persona Studio aims to improve that.
Despite recent anti-developer measures that completely neutralize regulations like the EU's DMA, the growth of the Vision Pro app so soon after launch shows that many developers in the Apple community still believe that Apple shows that they believe they offer a viable platform for success. Some believe the Vision Pro could be hit with a developer boycott or backlash, as several major developers oppose Apple's DMA plans, including Meta, Spotify, Epic Games, Mozilla, and Microsoft. There is.
There may be some significant resistance from these large companies, but at the end of the day, it's clear that much of Apple's developer community was interested in developing for the new device. In addition, Y Combinator today added “spatial computing” (Apple's term for mixed reality (AR/VR)) to its list of startups and companies it wants to fund, helping to further grow this market. This suggests that there is still some left. First.