Why Apple is promoting “spatial computing” in conjunction with the release of its new Vision Pro headgear

At $3,500, the Vision Pro will also be among Apple’s most costly offerings; at that price, most experts estimate the company may sell just a million or fewer units in its first year of business. However, in the first year of the device’s release, Apple only sold approximately 4 million iPhones; today, the company sells over 200 million of them yearly. This indicates that there is a history of what at first seems to be a niche product evolving into something that becomes integrated into people’s daily lives and workplaces. Should the Vision Pro do that, allusions to spatial computing may become as embedded in contemporary slang as those to mobile and personal computing—two earlier technical revolutions in which Apple was a key player. What precisely is spatial computing, then? It’s a way to explain how the virtual world created by technology intersects with the real world around us, allowing both humans and machines to coexist peacefully and manipulate objects and locations. These tasks frequently require elements of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR), two subsets of technology that are driving the development of spatial computing, according to Cathy Hackl, a longtime industry consultant currently leading a startup developing apps for the Vision Pro. As a testament to the enthusiasm surrounding the Vision Pro, Apple has announced that over 600 newly created apps will be instantly usable on the headset. A large variety of television networks, video streaming services (albeit Netflix and Google’s YouTube are noticeably missing from the list), video games, and different educational choices will all be available as applications. Regarding business, apps for the Vision Pro have also been developed by organizations that offer online meeting solutions, such as Zoom, a videoconferencing service. Apple is by no means the only well-known tech business developing items related to spatial computing. Google has been developing “Project Starline,” a three-dimensional videoconferencing service, for the past few years. It uses “photorealistic” visuals and a “magic window” to make it seem as though two individuals who are seated in different cities are in the same room. However, Starline hasn’t been made publicly available yet. Although the firm hasn’t positioned the product in that way yet, Facebook’s corporate parent, Meta Platforms, has been selling the Quest headset—which might be viewed as a platform for spatial computing—for years.