Oh it absolutely will. All the consumer pressure is going to be to make it smaller & more comfortable to wear. The technological limitations are just to going to have to accept that they’ll be overcome in interest of feeding that consumer demand.
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Wishful thinking I’m thinking. One can’t legislate scientific progress and while chip die size will keep decreasing from the current 3nm or whatever it is…that tighter spacing will come along with more transistors to provide those extra processors, GPUs, and neural engines so the M6 physical size isn’t going to really change significantly…see the size of M1 compared to M3 in it’s various configurations and there is no significant size change.
Similarly with displays and microphones and speakers which are the other major contributors to size…again while all of those will get incrementally better…it is likely to be capabilities rather than size.
So…where are these magical reductions in size and weight going to come from? Consumers can want them but you can’t beat physics.
As an example…take the original iPad vs the closest equivalent I could fine which is the 10.2 9th. Generation.
Original iPad 9.5x7.5 and 1.5 pounds
9th gen 9.6x6.8 and 1.1 pounds
So…same size and lighter weight but realistically we can’t expect AVP v5 to be significantly lighter because all of the improvements from original iPad to 9th generation are already baked into AVP v1…it might get a little lighter but the rule of diminishing returns says it won’t be the 26% gain the iPad has shown.
A similar comparison with iPhone isn’t really possible since Apple like every other manufacturer deliberately built bigger phones.
I would love for it to be smaller and lighter…but I’m a realist and don’t see where those gains can come from and as I said…one can’t legislate technological progress and at this point improvements in structural components for size and weight as well as battery improvements have been incremental for the past 4 or 5 years.
I don’t have specific ideas about where the weight reduction is going to come from (well, actually, one: battery technology has got a fair bit of headspace) but that second sentence is historically quite wrong. You can often beat physics, because physics has been largely inaccurate (or incomplete, if you want to be polite). People were confident that radios couldn’t get smaller because there was a limit to how small the vacuum tubes could be made. People thought there was a limit on plane speed because propellers couldn’t rotate beyond a certain speed without tearing themselves apart. You can’t beat physics, after all.
I have faith that the insatiable desire of the American economy to satisfy consumer demand will find a way to drive down the size of the VP.
(Oh, and the iPad example doesn’t work – people turn out to want screen sizes of a certain size and so consumer demand is pushing a lower limit to the size, not technology. But just look at how small the bezels are now. Apple’s taken it down as small as consumers want it.
Or you could just look at an iPad mini, which is 7.7 by 5.3 and 0.66 of a pound. That kind of reduction (1.5 pounds to .066) is exactly what I’m seeing for the VP)
And yet, iPhones can’t get smaller because Apple can’t seem to fit better cameras in smaller phones (quite the opposite — they’re about to make them bigger yet again to support better optics) or find better battery technology so they can finally get ~20 hrs from something the size of a silver Dollar.
Apple would do this is they could, but fact is they can’t because the tech is just not available (at least at consumer price points). And this is not a recent limitation — phones have been getting bigger to house better components and larger batteries for ~10 years now. And that is in spite of a tremendous increase in computational power per W (as I’m sure we can agree the A series demonstrated quite impressively).
So, yes, if we give AVP the same 30 years Mac had to go from Macintosh Portable to M1 MBA, we will certainly see lighter/smaller/better, lots of it. But over the course of the next 5 years? I’m certainly not expecting anything dramatic on the weight front (let alone something like glasses instead of goggles). Apple already has tremendous efficiency, if they saw any path to getting the battery onto the headset, they would have likely taken it. But fact is, even with a tethered battery and no buffer battery, the headset is heavy to the point where most reviewers have complained about it. So let’s be realistic. There will no doubt be progress, but there is no reason to expect miracles in the near term.
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iPhones could absolutely get smaller* but the consumer doesn’t want them to be. Consumers want screen sizes of a certain size and that limits how small the overall phone can be. If consumers demanded that the phones be as small as possible they’d be a heck of a lot smaller than they are now (with smaller screens, less capable cameras, smaller batteries, etc).
We have no idea what consumers actually want in terms of the capability of something like the Vision Pro but I think we can confidently expect that an overwhelming initial demand will be to make it smaller (and cheaper). It’s just too clunky at the moment. Apple’s almost surely going to try to meet that demand. On what timeline they succeed, I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to succeed at some point.
*we literally have seen iPhone minis recently that were substantially smaller than the current iPhone.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this since I got my Vision Pro. I’m not too worried about battery and another materials: there will be ways to make the thing smaller and cheaper.
Some suggestions:
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get rid of EyeSight feature. Just have a colored LED light that glows when user is immersed, similar to light that shows when video is being recorded.
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reduce the number of sensors and cameras. As the cameras and algorithms get better, this should be possible.
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use more plastic instead of metal (lighter/cheaper).
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perhaps plastic lenses instead of heavy glass?
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figure out how to not require motors to adjust for variances in the distance between eyes.
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better power management and new battery tech so battery can be smaller and last just as long.
etc. etc.
But how does Apple solve these more troublesome issues?
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eyes must be completely covered (sealed) for immersive experience. How do you do that without ski goggle-sized contraption? Even the current (complicated) system isn’t perfect and has some light leakage. I can’t imagine the sunglasses form factor, like many people say they want, would work for Apple’s “spatial computing” approach.
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handle wearers of glasses and various kinds of eye correction (hard contacts like me). If this is to be truly mainstream tech, it must support correcting for astigmatism (which I read is 40% of the population – maybe that meant just of people who wear glasses/contacts) and other vision issues.
Of course, it is very early days. It’ll be years – maybe a decade – before this changes that dramatically. I think the ski goggles look will be with us for a while. Maybe we’ll just used to it like we did to AirPods in people’s ears.
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Yes, and their battery life sucked and their cameras were inferior to the stuff Apple puts in their regular phones. Again: we are about to see yet another iPhone size increase because improving camera quality cannot happen within the confines of the presently available space. There is zero doubt at all here that Apple is bumping up against technological barriers, irrespective of what it is you claim everybody wants or does not want.
My iPhone mini had perfectly fine battery life and the camera was fine as well. I prioritized its size over both of those things. I was in the substantial minority and because of that the consumer pressure was mixed or upward. With the VP, the size pressure is going to be almost all downward. With that as the major pressure, Apple’s almost surely going to manage to substantially reduce the VP size at some point.
They’re not running into technological limits – they could perfectly well put a much smaller camera into the iPhone if consumers wanted a smaller phone. Consumers don’t, and so Apple (and other phone manufacturers) are left fighting over the quality of the camera rather than the size of the phone.
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Agreed. I guess it could be argued that the VP is really full-time VR. It only gives the illusion of part-time AR because it’s passing “actual” reallity through to the immersive environment, but it is supplied entirely by the external cameras.
The minimalist device that could theoretically provide this environment would be similar to those old-timey aviator goggles, I guess. Just two circles on a strap with some type of cushion to seal out light.
I don’t see how anything else (e.g., something that looked more like standard eyeglasses, or even laser projectors on stalks) would be able to achieve true VR. The real world would always leak through.
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FWIW, it appears you can connect its power brick to a charger while it is powering the AVP. I saw several YouTubers using it for extended sessions with this technique. A few were carrying a large USB-C power bank (in a backpack or another pocket), connected to the AVP’s battery. In this capacity, the AVP pack remains mostly full and the power bank drains. Which can then be replaced without shutdown - effectively making the AVP’s battery a UPS for the external power supply.
It’s far from certain that people will always want that kind of experience. If you want the software screens to “overlay” reality, then something like Brilliant’s Frame, which projects an image onto optical lenses, may be sufficient. And if you want to be fully immersed, then you can wear opaque goggles over them 
I guess we can agree to disagree then…but that’s fine and I will be happy if I’m wrong.
Yep…I’m looking 3-5 years out and getting any significant reduction in size or weight is unlikely…batteries might improve a bit but if so it will be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
I think it is strange that you would make such a presumptive assumption. I have so many expensive hobbies w/ steep-learning curves you would have to assume I have a very indulgent wife (I do… nonetheless, I recognized I need to let some go… :-).
But you couldn’t give me a Vision Pro. I simply am not interested in anything it does. When the games of Douglas Adams couldn’t hold my attention, I concluded I just wasn’t a gamer. But that didn’t stop me from buying more computers that I have fingers, and teaching myself to do useful things in a half-dozen computer languages. I’ve really wanted to find time to get into Swift (not a fan of Objective-C).
Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. Also, note the article frames this is a “gift” instead of a “cool thank you card” just for the purpose of inciting outrage.
I’m fully aware of that. I verified (the best I could) before posting it.
FWIW, (and it’s not Apple), here is an interesting video:
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Reply to Mark Z:
I’ve had the VP for a little less than a week now, and it’s even more exciting than I expected —and even more frustrating too. For example, I can’t get it to connect with my main email server, and can’t figure out the reason yet. It connects to my gmail addresses quite easily however! I haven’t taken it out to shoot landscape panoramas yet because I’ve been suffering a bad cold all week, However, even with my cold, the VP turned out to be much more comfortable than I initially feared, once I adjusted the double strap properly. This is something that my demo session totally neglected, and it seems to me Apple Store personnel could reduce the return rate dramatically by showing every new purchaser how to get the right fit with the double strap. Now I can leave it on for hours with no strain or pain.
As expected, a Bluetooth keyboard is a must, and it makes text entry just a tad slower than on my iPad. Apps such as 1Password work even faster than on my iPad, and install very easily.
More later!
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I understand that that’s the case now. But I suspect that in the future, the Vision will become far less isolating than the iPhone, as we will be able to sit down on a friend’s couch and catch up with them instantly, from anywhere in the world—for one out of many possible uses.
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What is so much better about the 15 Pro that you wouldn’t trade it for a 13 Mini?
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By the way, the demo was very impressive. I do wear glasses (progressives). The Apple Store employee who did the demo took my glasses into the back, had me scan my face for the light shield size, and then the Vision Pro came out with the proper inserts. The demo was perfect for me - eye tracking was perfect, my vision correction was perfect. If found the fit very comfortable with just the solo knit loop (I believe that’s what the head band is called) for the 30 minute demo; I was never uncomfortable, I never had issues with vertigo. My biggest issues were when I tried “typing”, but that was my fault - I was trying to go too fast and was looking away from the key that I wanted too fast without making sure that my pinch gesture was recognized. Once I realized that and slowed down, the typing was just fine, too. It was hard to recognize this because I couldn’t both look at the keyboard and at the Notes app to make sure that what I was typing was what was showing up in the app.
The Alison Sheridan article was not all that valuable to me - I’d say that this product should be demoed with proper vision inserts and the right light shield.
I still won’t buy it, but Apple really has made a very impressive product.
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