Apple has made a big point of emphasizing the categorization of Apple Vision Pro as spatial computing, not AR or VR. The spatial features are among the best things about Apple Vision Pro. The augmented reality feel of Apple Vision Pro is achieved through pass-through video. You don’t actually see the room you’re in; you see a video of the room. Others don’t actually see your eyes. They see an avatar of your eyes.
Apple required a lot of VR hardware to create AR and eventually wants to sell spatial computing AR glasses that look like ordinary eyeglasses. But that technology is a few years in the future, which is why Apple’s AR vision requires VR hardware.
Meta, meanwhile, also seems super excited about augmented reality glasses — something like Ray-Ban Meta glasses, but with spatial-computing visuals. It seems less excited about VR, as evidenced by losses and cutbacks. Meta’s Reality Labs division has lost tens of billions of dollars and laid off thousands of employees in the past few years.
