Apple has released its first 3D camera, the Apple Vision Pro, for users to capture spatial photos and videos in 3D which can be relived with spatial audio.
HTC VIVE country manager for Australia and New Zealand, Thomas Dexmier has shared insights on the implications of Apple’s entry into the market and the future of the category.
“Seeing Apple enter the market is a good endorsement for the future of extended reality (XR). It raises awareness of the category and use cases, and that’s ultimately a benefit for the industry. Apple has approached the market with a high-end product, which is similar to what it has always done in the past,” he said.
Apple has put a lot of thoughtful touches into the design and on certain aspects, has taken a similar approach to what HTC did with VIVE Flow in offloading the battery, according to Dexmier.
“There are trade-offs with that approach, but it has a lot of benefits,” he said.
“We took a lot of the learnings from VIVE Flow to develop VIVE XR Elite, which is versatile and can change physical form factor depending on how it’s being used.
“Apple’s choice of materials captures the essence of their design philosophy, but only the future will tell if the front-weighted combination of metal and glass is the right fit for how people want to use an XR device.
“Ultimately, we’re all working towards a future where the headset is as small and light as possible –partly in the battery and the materials, but also in offloading the computing. At HTC, we have our G REIGNS division, working on private portable 5G networks, as well as VIVE working directly with cloud services. In the future if those are combined, then headsets will immediately be able to become smaller and lighter.”
Dexmier notes that Apple is taking a similar sales approach to previous products, with a hero product, and as their technology matures, it’s likely that updated versions will be introduced which are not as expensive.
“With the Apple tide, all boats will rise. XR/spatial computing is unlike anything the world has seen before and is particularly powerful across enterprise. The XR industry is vast and only getting bigger in size. Every industry across the world can benefit. VIVE hardware is regularly used in fields like medical, training, sports, arts, design, visualisation, manufacturing, industrial metaverse, and much more. Apple’s launch is helping raise awareness of the whole category.”