We’ve gotten a fair number of sneak peeks into the Apple Vision Pro via other news outlets since its official unveiling last year during WWDC. Despite being touted as fruit brand’s biggest thing since the iPhone, not all of these early looks into the mixed reality headset is flattering. Just last week, we saw that its virtual keyboard leaves quite a bit to be desired. More recently, we learn that the headset won’t even have apps designed for it specifically in its early days.
Via the weekly Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg says that the Apple Vision Pro “will lack some key apps when it debuts”. While conjecture, Gurman says he’d “venture a guess that 99% of the total applications are iPad versions – rather than new software designed for the visionOS” of the headset. Even then, developers can opt out of showing these iPad versions of apps, and the report notes that the likes of Netflix, Spotify and YouTube have taken this option.
While it’s not a good look for the Apple Vision Pro (pun not intended) as it is, it sort of gets worse. This is because “even Apple itself hasn’t supported the new platform as robustly as it could”. As a result, you have first party stuff that’s normally pre-installed into iOS and iPadOS devices like Podcasts, News, Calendar and Reminders, among others, appearing for the headset in their iPad incarnations, and without a redesigned interface.
On one hand, third-party app makers have, in their eyes at least, good enough reasons to not invest too heavily into making versions of apps for the Apple Vision Pro. This ranges from uncertain return on investment, to protesting the ability for the iPhone maker to still be able to charge its App Store commission despite being forced to accept third-party payment methods. But none of these explanations apply to the company’s own apps.
Of course, none of this matters if the Apple Vision Pro is not available to begin with. On its official product page, the fruit company says that the headset “is only available for sale in the US”, and is planning to make it available elsewhere “later this year”.
