This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
It's been almost ten years since my first encounter with VR. I worked at PCWorld, and we got to test an early prototype of the HTC Vive. The year was 2016, and the world was preparing to be taken by storm by this virtual reality thing.
Fast forward to the present day and the rumor that Apple plans to overhaul the Vision Pro headset and turn it into a lighter and cheaper augmented reality system. What went wrong? The Vision Pro was supposed to (finally) launch the technology into the stratosphere and teach everyone a lesson on how it's done.
And even though the Vision Pro is technically a mixed reality headset (with a pass-through feature), all the VR drawbacks apply to the ultra-premium headset as well.
Back in 2016, I was, of course, taken aback by VR's potential, but even then, doubts were creeping in. Deciding not to be the next prophet of the apocalypse and discard VR right away, I quietly waited for the technology to mature, but now I'm certain.
Some of the things I thought were "growing pains" turned out to be fundamental limitations that can't be overcome. Rest in peace, VR. You were terminally ill from the very beginning and even Apple’s expertise and a sprinkle of mixed reality couldn’t save you. But let's cut the drama and see what these fundamental limitations really are.
(Dis)Comfort
Not the most comfortable thing. Looks cool, though...
My main gripe with VR has always been and still is the (lack of) comfort. The first-generation HTC Vive was 470 grams and quite tiring after 15 minutes. Slapping two displays right in front of your eyes and putting on a helmet is not a great user experience.
The Apple Vision Pro is even heavier, weighing between 600 and 650 grams, so it seems the technology has gone backwards in that specific regard. And this doesn't include the 350-gram battery that tethers to the headset and that you're supposed to put inside your pocket.
Even the $3500 Vision Pro gets uncomfortable after a while
There's also motion sickness (VR sickness); you start sweating, and your eyes strain and get tired pretty quickly, and even though you can get used to most of these, the separation from the real world is the main negative factor, in my opinion.
And Apple acknowledged this, making the Vision Pro pass-through, adding some "real-world" to the mix. It wasn't enough, it seems.
VR just puts a layer between you and the world around you. And people are "designed" to interact with their surroundings, including other people, of course, but everything else too. The real discomfort comes from checking out of reality.
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Cost (is not the main) issue
Nothing screams status like a pair of fancy $3500 scuba glasses
The obvious one, and a factor I thought would slowly lose its significance, is the price. But it turns out, as technology advances, the price not only doesn't go down but creeps up. The Vision Pro is $3,500, which is a lot, there's no way around it.
But even the $799 HTC Vive isn't selling all that well, and this speaks volumes. The high price doesn't help VR adoption, for sure, but the aforementioned issues are much more important, and the results are obvious.
According to analyst firm Omdia, sales of consumer VR headsets dropped 10% in 2024, falling to about 6.9 million units from 7.7 million in 2023. Active headset usage also went down—some people bought devices, tried them, then stopped using them.
Developers aren't developing…
A decade in and all we've got is floating apps and windows...
56% of the game developers think the VR market is declining or stagnating. So, if the people responsible for creating the magic don't believe in magic, things look doomed.
If you look objectively at the VR software scene, there's nothing groundbreaking there. Nothing you can't do on a normal flat screen, no new 3D browsing interface to change forever the way we surf the internet, no Minority Report-like productivity tools (remember Tom Cruise waving in the air) to take the good old spreadsheet out of business, nothing.
There are killer use cases, but they are very, very niche. Engineers, architects, and mechanics all benefit from AR and VR, but that's a very small portion of the market, very far from mass adoption. And looking at the statistics above, it's going to stay this way.
Samsung is late to a party that's already over
This headset looks familiar...
Let's not get into the "who copied whom" for a change. The Samsung Galaxy XR headset has leaked extensively, showing the Korean company's idea of the mainstream headset Apple Vision Pro never became.
But looking at the leak, the Galaxy XR won't bring anything radically different compared to the Vision Pro, even though it's built on Android XR—the platform that Google thinks will revolutionize, commercialize, and free VR and AR.
The device is still heavy (545 grams), still features an external battery, and I bet there won't be any game-changer apps to support the launch. So, even if the price is lower, chances are this headset will face the same fate as the Vision Pro, withering away into oblivion. Poetic.
The future is augmented
Meta might be on a right track, just don't mess it up, Mark!
The difference between VR and AR might be blurry at times, especially with these mixed reality headsets, but the latter shakes off most of the disadvantages and offers some really cool features that CAN be indispensable.
A pair of AR glasses, wirelessly connected to your phone, is lightweight and allows you to see the world around you, interact with it, and enhance it in ways that no other gadget can.
Think of navigation floating in midair, real-time translation without the need to look at your phone, contextual information about your surroundings, traffic signs, shops—the possibilities are endless.
I don't want to oversell it and get on the hype train, but even early prototypes I've tested at several MWC events were way more useful than any VR (or mixed reality) headset to date. We put our eggs in the Meta basket now, regarding AR, and let's hope Mark don't mess it up.
What do you think about all this? Do you share my (a tad radical) notion about VR being dead, and do you think AR stands a better chance?
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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