I am very excited. Later today, an Apple Vision Pro will be delivered to me. Yes, I invested around $4,000 to purchase this device. I can afford it because years ago, I invested in Apple (as well as other technology companies like Google, NVDIA, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon). I totally understand that the Apple Vision Pro will not be perfect. But like in the past when Apple created other devices, it will change how we use computers. And while $4,000 is a lot of money, guess what? For what we are getting, it really is not that expensive. How can I say that? Well, way back in the 1980s my first computer was the Macintosh Plus. In today’s money, that cost around $7,000. The Macintosh Plus back in 1986 had a small black and white screen. But it was totally cool and changed how people use computers. See this wikipedia article. The original Macintosh created a new computer paradigm because it made the graphic user interface and mouse popular. Before this, even the prior Apple computer and MS-Dos computers that IBM and others created just used words typing on a line to control the computer. Now, we take for granted the GUI-based computers. Even Microsoft after the Macintosh was created a GUI operating system: it was Windows!! For years, with Windows PCs and the Macintosh, the GUI computer paradigm using the mouse and keyboard dominated how people used computers. But that paradigm did change. How?
The iPhone. Apple’s IOS system based on touch changed everything. Apple’s iPhone together with the iPad dominate the way people use computers. Look what happened to the stock of Intel. Intel stock is way down because regular computers like Windows PC and Macintosh are not growing like the way smartphones and iPads are. Touch has taken over as the better computer paradigm than GUI with mouse and keyboard. Touch computing is why Apple is worth three trillion dollars.
But now we are entering a new paradigm: spatial computing. With the Apple Vision Pro, and its new spatial operating system, Apple has created a 3 dimensional operating system. We live in a 3D world. Yet up to now, we have been operating computers in a 2 dimensional world. (Arguably, prior to the GUI and mouse, the computer paradigm was just 1 dimensional. For example, computers worked with punch cards or with MS-Dos, with words typed on a line.)
Spatial computing is what Apple has created with the Apple Vision Pro. Yes, other tech companies, including Google and Facebook, have created devices already that look like spacial computing. But what Apple does, based on creating devices and programming and operating systems, is take such technology to another level that will make all people go forward in the new paradigm. Remember, the GUI that Apple created in the Macintosh was actually created previously by a Xerox lab. Apple, under Steve Jobs, saw what Xerox created, and then used it to create the new computer paradigm. What Apple is good at is taking cutting edge technology and figuring out how to make it great and easy enough for everyday people to use. Remember the iPod? Before the iPod there were several good MP3 devices. But Apple took that technology and made it much better with the iPod. It was much better because it had much more storage with a 5 gb small hard drive. Then it became much better by working with the iTunes program to easily buy sons and load it on the iPad. Similarly, the concept of smart phones that were also computers existed before the iPhone. Remember early Windows phones in the early 2000s? They weren’t good. They weren’t good because Microsoft didn’t really make devices and also Windows was made for regular PCs, not really smartphones. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007 he created a new paradigm for all people who wanted to use a computer: touch.
Some people are skeptical. It is understandable. Many people thought the Macintosh would fail. That using a mouse and GUI was stupid and for little kids. Similarly, when the iPhone came out some telephone company executives said it would fail. They said it was too expensive. Remember the RIM guys who created the Blackberry? The Blackberry was the dominant smartphone at the time with a real physical keyboard. Those founders of RIM said the iPhone would never replace Blackberries because a touch keyboard could not replace a physical keyboard. Look how popular the iPhone and Android phones are now. And RIM no longer exists.
So yes, for many, the first model of the Apple Vision Pro is too expensive and also not perfected enough. But the 1st generation of the Apple Vision Pro is the future just like the Macintosh was, just like the iPod was, and just like the iPhone is.
