Vision Pro dubbed an "over-engineered devkit" by former Head of Oculus at Meta

Hugo Barra, the former Head of Oculus at Meta and former Google senior vice president of Android Product Management, has weighed in on the Apple Vision Pro. In a detailed blog post, Barra covers the various strengths and shortcomings of Apple’s latest product from a relatively neutral standpoint. 

Notably, Barra calls the Vision Pro a “meticulously over-engineered “devkit” that is far too heavy to have product-market fit but good enough to seed curiosity into the world.” In his view, because it cannot comfortably be worn for any more than 30-45 minutes, it really is targeted at developers as its primary audience with a Vision headset that “could have product-market fit in 1 or 2 generations.”

In Barra’s view, where the Vision Pro really shines is what he calls “an unprecedented new level of presence.” This is achieved by making wearers feel present and connected to their physical world, something Barra says Apple has achieved thanks to its high-fidelity passthrough. He also calls Apple’s “gaze & pinch” method of interaction “a new UI superpower” that is akin to the iPhone’s capacitive multi-touch gestures. In Barra’s view, like multi-touch, the Vision Pro’s gaze & pinch UI will become the new standard for AR/VR interaction.

Ultimately, however, Barra chose to return his Vision Pro as “Apple’s journey of product-market fit in VR…has a long way to be able to deliver true retention.” In addition to weight concerns, Barra argues that Apple needs to make productivity use cases frictionless, encourage the development of high-quality immersive AR games, and fix issues with its passthrough mode among a number of other suggestions. He also believes that Apple's arrival in the spatial computing space is good news for Meta, which might yet get its "Android moment." The full blog post is linked below and is worth a read.

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