What Apple Vision Pro Changed and What It Didn't

Two Years In, Where Are We?

When Vision Pro launched in February 2024, everyone lost their minds. Monitors are dead, the spatial computing era is here. I was excited too, honestly.

But two years later, half of that was right and half was wrong.

Cumulative sales are around 1 million units, which looks a bit underwhelming compared to the iPhone's 6 million in its first year. Then again, for a first-gen product at $3,499, it's roughly tracking the same trajectory as the original Apple Watch. The Apple Watch was dismissed as an expensive toy at first too, before it took off with Series 3.

The Video Experience Genuinely Changed

Watching movies is a genuinely different experience. The feeling of a 100-inch screen floating in front of your eyes -- a 65-inch TV can't come close.

Disney+ started pushing spatial video, and content has crossed 500 titles. Sports like NBA and MLB are available in 180-degree immersive broadcasts.

Enterprise saw movement too. Boeing reportedly cut wiring harness assembly time by 25% after adopting it, and Johns Hopkins is using it for spinal surgery simulations. (That stuff genuinely seems useful.)

But It Hasn't Changed Daily Life

The biggest issue is weight. 650g looks impressive on a spec sheet, but strap it to your face for 30+ minutes and it's a different story.

After a 2-hour movie, you've got marks on your nose and forehead. I told myself I'd get used to it, but six months in, still uncomfortable.

Text-heavy work is still a no-go. For coding or writing, it can't beat a 27-inch monitor. Virtual keyboard typing speed is maybe 30% of a physical keyboard, and to use the Mac virtual display, you need to carry a Mac with you anyway.

So it ended up being an additional device, not a replacement. That's Vision Pro's biggest irony.

The App Ecosystem Is a Bit Lonely

As of late 2025, there are about 2,500 native apps. That's less than a tenth of what the iPad had in the same timeframe.

Since it's SwiftUI-based, the barrier to entry looks low, but spatial interaction design is an entirely new UX paradigm. You have to account for where the user is looking and how they're gesturing. The leap from 2D to 3D demands an even bigger mental shift than when mobile replaced desktop.

And with a 1 million unit install base, generating meaningful revenue from a single app is tough. Most indie developers are watching from the sidelines. (I'd probably do the same.)

B2B is a different story though. A single contract can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, so install base doesn't matter as much, and the top-grossing apps are almost all enterprise offerings. Maybe the strategy is to establish in enterprise first and go consumer later.

The Real Fight Hasn't Started Yet

Apple's pattern is always similar. Gen 1 shows the vision, gen 2 goes mainstream. iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch -- all followed this playbook.

The second-gen model expected in late 2026 is rumored to drop below $2,000 and cut weight by 30%. With an M5 chip, performance should jump significantly.

Thinner lenses, lighter frame, longer battery. If those three get solved, the game could really change.

So What's the Verdict?

Calling Vision Pro a success or failure right now feels premature. What's clear is that it's positioning itself not as a monitor replacement but as a new category of media consumption device.

Smartphones didn't truly take off until the iPhone 3GS. Vision Pro might follow a similar path, but whether that takes 3 years or 10 -- honestly, I don't know either.

The direction of spatial computing itself seems irreversible. The only questions are timing and form.

You don't need to buy a Vision Pro right now. But it might be worth skimming through the SwiftUI spatial layout docs. When a new platform opens up, the developers who jump in first are the ones who get the opportunities. Just like the early App Store days. Whether this particular wave actually breaks, though -- I'm still not sure.