At 1: 00 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, June 5, the much-anticipated Apple 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) was held.。In an iconic and colorful opening animation, Apple CEO Tim Cook finally met everyone in "Apple Park" and embarked on an expedition called "Code new worlds."。

The capital markets were already in motion before the conference began: Apple's shares rose more than 2 percent at one point, hitting a record intraday high.。The reason why the market is highly anticipated for this conference is that there are rumors that Apple will release its first mixed reality headset at this WWDC, and Apple has been laying out this product for more than a decade and has delayed the release several times, and this time there is finally hope that it will be released.。The market is looking forward to witnessing its own "iPhone moment" yesterday.。

And Cook didn't let everyone down, after the company introduced the 15-inch MacBook Air, the new Mac Studio, and software system upgrades, he smiled and announced the finale of "One more thing" - Apple's first interactive head-up Vision Pro。

M2 + R1 = Vision Pro's Left and Right Brain visionOS Outline Apple's Blueprint for Multi - Software Ecology

In terms of overall appearance, Vision Pro uses a streamlined design similar to ski goggles, with a full glass front panel and aluminum frame on the front。In the front frame, there are two 23-megapixel Micro OLED displays, with a specially customized three-layer lens, so that each eye is allocated pixels beyond the 4K TV, can achieve 100-inch screen viewing, has excellent visual experience, enrich the authenticity and permeability of the viewing effect.。In addition, in order to break through the barriers that ergonomics must keep close to the face, Apple and Zeiss (Zeiss) have jointly launched custom lenses that can be used for magnetic assembly, so that users wearing glasses can also use。It is worth mentioning that there is a top knob similar to the Apple Watch side knob above the Vision Pro headset, which can be used to adjust the size of the virtual space。

In terms of hardware, Apple has made unprecedented efforts to inject two powerful chips into Vision Pro in one breath, the M2 chip and the R1 chip.。As a Mac-level M2 chip, it can provide powerful functional support for the head display, while the real-time sensor processing chip R1 is mainly responsible for the sensor's signal transmission, processing and other functions.。It is reported that the R1 chip can take input from Vision Pro's 12 cameras, 5 sensors (including 1 lidar sensor) and 6 microphones, and process the sensor data quickly within 12 milliseconds, which is 8 times faster than blinking.。

In terms of hearing, Apple uses advanced audio ray tracing technology in Vision Pro, with a dual-drive unit for sound effects, to enhance the surround and stereoscopic feel of spatial sound effects。Not only that, the technology will automatically analyze the situation in the space to match the best audio effects。

In terms of environmental interaction, Vision Pro works with Apple's new operating system, visionOS, to create a 3D interactive interface that surprises users.。First of all, many iPhone and iPad applications support the direct use of visionOS, which directly provides a rich software ecosystem for the application level of Vision Pro。Apple said it will also create a special version of its App Store in the future, mainly to provide AR and VR software adapted to the system.。

Secondly, in terms of interactive innovation, Vision Pro completely gets rid of the interactive mode of contact controller and additional hardware, and only needs the cooperation of hands and eyes to complete the desired operation in the Vision Pro module。Of course, users can also dictate Siri to Vision Pro.。Finally, according to Apple's introduction, in order to ensure that users can take into account the world around them during the use of Vision Pro, Apple has developed a feature called Eyesight, when the user is in a full VR state, the Vision Pro screen will send feedback to the people around you, Prompt the user status。

In terms of user privacy, Vision Pro will abandon the password login in the PC era or the fingerprint and face recognition methods in the smartphone era, and instead adopt a more secure biometric identification method - Optic ID's iris recognition。It is understood that Optic can be used for Apple Pay or Apple Store to download applications, data is encrypted and does not leave the device, only the device's security authentication program can access。In addition, Apple has also implanted a variety of privacy protection measures and Vision Pro, such as the gaze point data of the human eye, the video data of the space, will involve personal privacy, these data will be isolated and processed separately in the background of the device.。

It's "best" and "most expensive."

It can be seen that, no matter what aspect of the point of view, Apple this time in the Vision Pro can be said to be under the blood, so that this interactive head display single carry any aspect and the existing products on the market to compare, can not fall behind。However, the high price of this product has deterred many "fruit fans."。According to Apple, the expensive, epoch-making headset, which starts at an exaggerated starting price of $3,499, will go on sale in the U.S. early next year and land in more countries and regions next night.。It can be said that Apple's Vision Pro head display, not only to do the "best," but also to do the "most expensive"。

For the current mainstream interactive headsets on the market, the most expensive is HTC's HTC Vive XR, Elite, which is about 7,809 yuan, while the starting price of Vision Pro is more than three times that.。It is understood that the product uses Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip, and equipped with LcD Pancake optical lens, although the configuration is also quite able to play, but the distance from Apple's M2 + R1 chip "king fry" is still slightly inferior。

In addition, under the same endurance, Apple needs to bring its own external battery, which also makes the market slightly disappointed。It is reported that during the display of Vision Pro, some media have found a data cable outside Vision Pro.。At first, people thought that the other end of the data cable would be connected to other products of the Apple family, bringing users more interactive experience of the Internet of Things, but unexpectedly, the other end of the data cable would be connected to an external battery of Vision Pro, but even so, it could only provide it with 2 hours of battery life, and its battery life was even worse than that of Pico 4 Pro and Meta Quest Pro.。

As expected, Apple's share price plummeted as soon as the power cord came out; as soon as the price came out, Apple's share price plummeted.。Eventually, Apple's share price weakened in late trading, erasing gains before the start of the WWDC conference, falling more than 1% at one point, and finally closing down 0.76%, with the latest total market capitalization evaporating $84.5 billion ($600 billion) from its peak.。

On the one hand, the high price of this head does scare away some enthusiastic consumers; on the other hand, the unsightly external battery that comes with the Vision Pro also makes consumers wonder if the epoch-making interactive head they are seeing is a "semi-finished product" that Apple has not yet broken through technical barriers.？

Some analysts believe that the Vision Pro, which will go on sale early next year, will not have much appeal to the mainstream market, at least initially, and the $3,500 price may discourage many consumers.。In addition, research firm Creative Strategy consumer technology analyst Carolina Milanesi (Carolina Milanesi) also mentioned that this headset "is not for mass market consumers, but early adopters and developers."。

Timo Toikkanen, CEO of Finnish AR / VR headset manufacturer Varjo, said: "For these devices and experiences to come in a compact form, you and I can walk all day with a pair of smart glasses, and a variety of technologies need to be integrated.。He added: "You need to make advances in optics, power management, thermal management (and computing power), which is a very complex product, all of which takes a long time to achieve, and then all of which have to be miniaturized."。"

Currently, according to market research firm IDC, Meta currently controls nearly 80% of the AR / VR device market and has an absolute say in the market.。Earlier, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his vision for interactive headset devices as "the key to getting in and out of the virtual world."。But at the conference, Apple highlighted the novelty of the product's AR features and the partnerships it will offer, such as sports and entertainment, without touching on the concept of virtual worlds.。

Milanesi said: "The core difference for me is that Zuckerberg is trying to create a virtual world that he wants us to be in, while Apple seems to want us to stay in our world and just want to expand our world.。"

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