A new reality

Apple's latest gadget will have to prove its utility

Interest in a touchscreen product that users could interact with directly with their fingers rather than using a stylus was first expressed by Steve Jobs in 1999. The device would require a triple-layered capacitive multi-touch touchscreen, a technology thought to be the stuff of science fiction even at the start of this century. A shift from pen computing to touchscreens had dominated discussions on personal tech at that time, even as Apple, Microsoft, and others launched their own tablet computers operated with the help of a stylus. The iPad — Apple’s tablet computer which finally made the jump to touch-based computing from its stylus-based Newton series — was released in 2010. But, by then the iPhone, released in 2007, had birthed a new breed of handheld computers: The smartphone. Today, India’s smartphone market has over 600 million users, with affordable models ruling the roost.

Meanwhile, Apple recently announced its augmented reality (AR) headset at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2023. The company is said to be working on a deeper integration of the mixed-reality headset with the upcoming iPhone 15. Its new announcement has expectedly led to scepticism with regard to its price. Apple’s new AR-VR headset is, in fact, a new kind of computer and comes with an initial price tag of $3,499, or roughly Rs 2.8 lakh. The initial reviews by tech experts have justified the price, which is based on the product’s innovative new Vision OS and the overall experience. Vision Pro is a computer worn on the face. Rather than viewing the computer’s output through a physical screen, it is projected directly into the eyes of the user with two very small but high-resolution displays. Further, instead of controlling the computer through a keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen, the primary user interface is through eye tracking and gestures. It requires no physical control to use this new computer. Notably, there have been antecedents to each of Vision Pro’s alleged path-breaking innovations — a myriad of worn devices from Google Glass to Meta’s Quest Pro, and technologies such as Leap Motion and the Myo Armbands. Apple has simply put these all together as a coherent vision, with the characteristic elegance money can buy.

Vision Pro may not work in markets like India for obvious reasons. But the question is: Is this the iPhone moment for AR-VR? It is possible that competitors will realise the potential of unleashing this tech in the Indian market, enter a price war, and let loose a barrage of cheaper and more affordable models until the buying power of Indians can finally begin to catch up with the premium Apple products in this segment. This path, however, would be driven by a core component that so far seems missing in most AR-VR wearables today: Daily utility. With multi-function apps, and the most essential daily tools for communication, entertainment, and information at fingertips, the smartphone is perhaps like the modern-day digital Swiss pocket knife: Portable, easily accessible, and indispensable. Its daily utility is undeniable in a large market such as India. And this was true even for the earliest smartphone models. The clunky AR-VR goggles don’t match up in this arena, at least for now. Moreover, Vision Pro’s uber-bionic all-seeing hi-res camera, which can click images with the mere movements of your eyes, has raised major privacy concerns.

Thus, unless Vision Pro’s new avatars get closer to humble eye-glasses and Apple devises a way to secure the visual data it accrues every second, its latest brainchild may be headed down the other road — the one travelled by Apple’s Newton, the G4 Cube, and eMate.