. Now that Apple’s Vision Pro has been out a few months (as well as device management support), I wanted to put out a longer form article on my thoughts about it as an enterprise product. This opinion has nothing to do with how I think about it as a consumer product, though.
Apple products cross over both industries. As an example, I have a lot of ways that Apple TV could be improved for the enterprise, but that has nothing to do with its usefulness at home. Let’s dive in! Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT network from 2009 to 2021. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise grade Wi-Fi, 1000s of Macs, and 1000s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments. Vision Pro is going through its big and slow laptop phase If your idea of the modern laptop started when Steve introduced the original MacBook Air, then you have a grand view of history. The is what my first laptop looked like, and boy, was it heavy and hot. I know folks who are older than me who can tell stories of even worse laptops. They were slow. The batteries were awful. They were worse in every way compared to the desktops at the time. You only chose this computer for portability (notice I didn’t say mobility). Today, even the cheapest Apple laptop can be a usable computer for anyone. Picking a desktop is a rarity for most people. The laptop has gotten so small while gaining power that there’s almost no reason not to choose it. The Vision Pro in 2024 is like that giant laptop in 2000. It’s heavy. Its battery isn’t that long. There are tons of reasons not to choose it. Just like the laptop in 2000, it’s important to start somewhere, though. You don’t get the laptops of 2024 without having the laptops of 2000, and whatever augmented/virtual reality morphs into in the next two decades, you don’t get to it without version 1. Is wearing a Vision Pro something we’ll ever do for 8+ hours daily? I am not sure. The round of technology limits that, but in the future, it may be so light and seamless that you don’t even feel like you’re working. Imagine something along the lines of a
Google Glass design with the power of Vision Pro. That might be a more interesting idea. Apple knows that a $3500 device will likely not be the default gear for employee devices. They added device management support to prepare for the future. It’s also being used for non-personal reasons, such as when it was used in . It will be used in niche use cases at work for the foreseeable future, and that’s okay for the coming years. There will be fun stories that come out, but at this price point and with the device’s weight, it will be a secondary device. Wrap up So what’s the point, Bradley? You can dismiss Vision Pro as a primary work device. No one is ditching their Mac for a Vision Pro in 2024. It’s going to be a nice device for unique use cases for now, but I do believe there are a lot of strings to pull for Apple in this category for work in the coming decades. I believe this is a multi-decade category opportunity, and just like with laptops, it’ll move gradually and then suddenly. .