Malcolm Owen
New owners of the Apple Vision Pro may be disappointed by the selection of native apps at launch, with claims that roughly 150 have been developed with experiences made for the headset.
Apple opened up a version of the App Store for the Apple Vision Pro on January 16, giving developers the opportunity to add their apps ahead of the headset's February 2 release date. However, it seems that very few developers will be actually offering apps to users that actually take advantage of the headset's capabilities at the start.
On the weekend, research by AppFigures reported by TechCrunch indicates that there may be little more than 150 apps that have been updated to include Vision Pro-specific functionality, namely some form of virtual reality or mixed reality component. It's still possible that more will be added by the time the Apple Vision Pro is in users' hands, but it's still a very small start for a major new platform.
Users will still have a massive variety of apps to use that will be compatible with the headset from the start, though, with Apple automatically porting over iPadOS apps with minimal input needed from developers, unless they opt out. The difference is that, rather than being a fully-fledged 3D environment, for example, these apps will operate within visionOS as a flat 2D app within a window.
The small number of apps that offer spatial computing elements could be explained by a number of factors, including that developers may not be willing to put resources towards a platform that will have relatively few users, at least at the start of its life.
There have also been limited amounts of hardware shared with developers to help perfect apps for the headset.
Key standout apps that won't be on Apple Vision Pro at launch will be Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify, which are not enabling iPad apps on the platform. By contrast, the Disney+ app is a major launch partner for Apple, and has incorporated full 3D environments that users can sit in while they watch content.
So far, it is believed Apple sold between 160,000 and 180,000 units in the first weekend of pre-orders.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
17 Comments
Serious question; what's with Apple Insider's negative headlines about Vision Pro? Apple sold half its sales target for 2024 in the first few hours of pre-orders and your headline takeaway the other day was that they were "struggling" to market it. Now you headline the 150 native apps available as "few and far between." As you acknowledge several paragraphs down, VP hardware for developers has been in limited supply, and even for those who've received it, how much time have they actually had to develop for a new computing platform that's unlike anything we've seen before? Do you actually think it's news to first year buyers of Vision Pro that current availability of native apps isn't robust? I'm thinking that anyone spending $3500 to buy v1.0 of Vision Pro now knows exactly what they're buying into.
People have such short memories. They recall Apple's hit products as being birthed as hits, conveniently forgetting in the comparisons to Vision Pro that these hits, in fact, were often derided by the tech press at launch and/or seriously underwhelming in the performance dept. (See iPod, Macbook Air, iPad and Apple Watch.) Here's a thought: stop with the coverage of sales numbers and marketing for this year--Apple will hit its target, end of story--and start focusing on what native apps available for the platform can do, as well as interviewing developers about what they see as possibilities in the near term future... like a year or two out. THAT would actually be interesting.
150 native apps is a lot for a brand new platform, how many do you want?
I agree with another post on here, it's all negative from the tech press and not very informative....it's actually pathetic 😡
will sell as many as they can produce!
I agrees with the other 2 posters so far.
I would prefer reviews on the apps on VP than the negativity.
We remember the iPhone initially only had Apple Apps.
The iPad was going to be a niche product.
The Apple Watch wouldn't appeal.
Let's have some serious reviews of the hardware, the experience and the current apps and new ones as they arrive.