Apple's Vision Pro could disrupt the way people watch TV at home and use computers at work, potentially becoming the successor to traditional TVs and Macs.
The $3,500 headphones, which blend three-dimensional digital content with views of the outside world, hit Apple's U.S. stores on Friday. It enters a world full of Meta Platforms
META, HTC
2498and other low-cost competitors, most of which were limited to the video game market and failed to find a mass audience.
But Apple's pricey devices feature custom computing chips and difficult-to-manufacture displays that rivals lack. Analysts who have tried the headset say these features could make the device a threat to nearly any large two-dimensional screen in the home or workplace.
Walt Disney Company (Walt Disney
DIS) has been quietly working with Apple for years to develop an app for the Vision Pro launch, the latest in a history of collaboration between the two companies.
"When we saw this product, it was clear that it provided a new stage for us to tell stories in ways never before possible," said Aaron LaBerge, chief technology officer of Disney Entertainment. "Obviously we want to do something here to expand ourselves," said Aaron LaBerge, chief technology officer of Disney Entertainment.
The Disney+ app wraps moviegoers in one of four environments so they can watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens from the seat of the fictional X-34 speeder on the planet Tatooine, just like Like the drive-in movie theater of the future; or watch it inside Avengers: Endgame: Avengers: Endgame inside Avengers Tower in Midtown Manhattan. Audiences can also watch 42 more Disney 3D movies, including box office hits "Avatar: Waterfall," "Black Panther" and "Inside Out."
Walt Disney Studios chief technical officer Jamie Voris said that films such as "The Lion King" director Jon Favreau and "Avatar" director James Cameron Producers are interested in telling stories in new ways. Disney previewed an experience in which consumers could interact with Marvel Studios' animated anthology series "What If" in a clip shown at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference last June.
The device also opens up new ways to experience live sporting events or theme park rides, Voorhees said.
"It's a great example of what we do best, which is bringing our characters and stories into the real world and bringing you closer to the people you care about," Wallis said.
The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once told biographer Walter Isaacson that while developing the next generation of televisions, "I finally cracked it." But to analysts like Creative Strategies' Ben Bajarin, Vision Pro appears to be fulfilling that long-held promise.
"I don't know if that's what Steve meant when he said, 'I cracked television,'" Bajarin said. "But the platform element makes it more interesting than launching a TV. It can be productivity. It can be a social platform.
It could become a bigger deal and opportunity than television.
To be sure, the pricey Vision Pro won't sell quickly. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a note to investors that Apple has told its supply chain that it only expects to produce 1 million units - and even then, It could also be that Apple prepared excess capacity ahead of consumer demand.
"Apple's approach demonstrates a lack of confidence that consumers will buy immediately without an in-store demonstration," Sacconaghi wrote.
However, the high price is not a barrier for enterprise buyers.
Jay Wright, CEO of Campfire, a startup, points out that the original Mac in 1984 cost nearly $7,500 today. But small businesses flocked to the Mac because of its ability to create and print documents and brochures.
"It's important to realize that this is not a consumer accessory device like the Apple Watch. This is a completely new computing platform," Wright said. "I think this is more like what comes after the Mac than what comes after the iPhone."