The Director General of Apple Tim Cook (L) receives a selfie with a greeting clients with the arrival of issuing Vision Pro Store in the New York City on February 2, 2024.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
When Apple She discovered Vision Pro in 2023, she called her $ 3,500 headphones her next “main platform”. Two years later, and one year after it goes on sale, the device is thin in the applications.
Apple does not regularly release statistics on the number of PRO Vision applications available, and it is difficult to show how many new applications come out each month. According to the Appfigules consulting, which tracks Apple platforms, the number of new vision pro applications has fallen every month since the device hit the market in February 2024.
When Apple discovered Vision Pro, leaders said developers would be able to create new experiences that were not possible with traditional computers. But so far, leading developers remain largely focused elsewhere, and large technology companies like Google, Meta AND Netflix Have not yet released their most important applications for headphones.
Many of the new applications and ideas for Vision Pro come from independent developers, hacifying weekends while carrying daily work.
One person in the Indie camp is Adam Roszyk, a programmer in Poland who has created 17 apps vision pro since the headphones were released for the first time.
For $ 4, Roszyk’s Night Vision app allows a pro -tap vision user on cameras that feel deep in the device to see objects in the dark. If you spend $ 5, you can perform a daily job in a video game similar to Luigi’s residence The application vacuum, which overlaps the virtual coins on your floor you can vacuum, along with any real dirt or dust. And for $ 6, Roszyk app export allows users to create a digital 3D scan of an entire building just walking around, a useful tool for those under construction or real estate.
“We’re still early, and we really don’t know how it can really be useful in your life,” Roszyk said. “There are so many different ideas that just come to your mind.”
Roszyk continues to work on the PRO vision apps because he said he believes that “Spatial Informatics” – Apple’s favorite terminology for headphones and glasses technology that can integrate 3D objects with the world around them – will be the other large platform. Roszyk is betting that the application development can now put it in the main position when more people are walking with a pro or probably a few days, light glasses.
“This kind of information is the future,” Roszyk said. “I would definitely compare it to the first iPhone.”
Roszyk’s efforts have made money, but not enough for the pro -Development vision to become his full -time work. His 17 apps have cleared about $ 4,000 in the App Store in the last three months. This number is increasing as it issues more applications and more people learn about them, Roszyk said.
Apple updated its latest Vision Pro count in August, with CEO Tim Cook telling investors in a revenue call that the platform had 2,500 applications. This number covers fully submerged applications that overlap virtual objects over the real world, as well as 2D applications with some space components.
According to the Appfigura count, less than 1,900 of these applications remained active at the end of January.
Apple refused to comment.
Rival Meta In 2023 she said she had 500 applications in her Quest store, and the company last year said the number was multiplied by 10.
Quest 3S, which has many of the same features as Vision Pro, starts at $ 300. Meta also sold millions of its ancestors in recent years. While Meta has not revealed how many users he has, his Meta Quest app was downloaded about 6 million times in 2024, according to Appfigura data, a useful representative because users have to download the app in order to create headphones.
There are also about 1.5 million pro vision applications that are transferred versions of iPhone and iPad app. Apple automatically ports iPhone and iPad apps on Vision Pro when they are loaded, but companies may fall. These applications can be used within headphones, but are presented as flat 2D screens. Meta started imitating that strategy last year with 2D Android applications for Quest, but the company does not have the same library of millions of existing mobile applications.
Apple does not publish vision pro sales, but an estimate from IDC suggests less than 1 million devices have been sold.
Some services like Netflix and YouTube, and game transmission services like Nvidia Geforce can now be achieved through the Apple Vision Pro browser. And existing applications often get updates that present a spatial way, such as the NBA app, which recently received an experimental feature that allows users to watch a direct basketball game as if the players were miniature figurines on a table.
Apple Arcade, a monthly reconciliation of Apple, requires his titles to support Vision Pro in addition to iPhone and iPads. Apple Arcade developers are paid by Apple and their apps are free for subscribers.
Although many of those games are 2D, some are exclusive for Vision Pro. In January, Apple released Gears & GOO, a vision pro -app that enables the player to control an army of frog -like characters on a table in the real world.
Meanwhile, Meta is actively judging VR developers with a promise that they can make money. Meta in January said her volume of payment for Quest headphones increased by 12% last year, though it did not quote a total number. Meta also said there are 200 applications that have made more than $ 1 million through software sales.
No gold rush similar to iPhone app
Apple Vision Pro Retapotes appear at Apple Avenue’s fifth store on February 2, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The Prov Gold Rush Vision has seen a slower intake than the iPhone app boom.
A year after it was launched in 2008, Apple was getting around the platform that had 50 million customers, 2 billion downloads and 85,000 applications. Apple regularly told investors and developers how much money he had paid from application store sales – it has not issued any similar statute for Vision Pro.
Many in the VR industry hoped that Apple’s entry would start a boom as the iPhone did for mobile applications, creating wealth while millions of users sought to complement their new fresh software devices.
“My assumption at that time was everything Apple leaves could be in that final form, so it’s a good idea to be ready as soon as possible,” said Nikhil Jacob, who runs Vision Uni, i Which publishes content in connection with the development of applications for Vision Pro. “But my assumption there ended up being wrong.”
Jacob said he believes that an ecosystem of the Vision Pro Vision App developer will take much more time to build than for the iPhone because the main parts are missing. Jacob hopes Apple to improve the app store app to help users find new apps.
Slow intake, due to this high price, has led some to worry that VR and its related technologies are entering once again.
“Winter has come,” said Jarrett Webb, who develops headphone applications for Argo Design, a software consultancy. “Even Apple couldn’t produce a winner.”
However, some optimism remains among Vision Pro developers.
They say Apple’s device is strong, company developer tools are improving, and that Vision Pro lays the groundwork for future programs and hardware updates. It also helps that Vision Pro owners still seem to be excited to try new applications.
Apple’s entry into the headphone market, combined with the latest Google announcement for its Android XR platform, as well as billions of dollars of investment signals that will have a VR content market, said John Gearty who Worked on Vision Pro on Vision Pro in Apple and is the founder of the studio pulse, a VR production house that focuses on music. Gearty is hoping for a steady market growth, but he has reduced his expectations.
“I don’t think it will ever be the growth of the hockey stick,” he said.
Apple has not said whether to update Vision Pro. According to analysts, the company is working for a successor. Developers want it to be easier and less expensive. They welcome any improvement that would get it in more faces.
“Over time, everything gets better, and it will also have its course to improve and better,” Cook Wall Street Journal in October. “I think it’s just a controversial success today from an ecosystem -built point of view.”
– Jonathan Vanian of CNBC contributed to this report.
