Nobody wants to put a device on their head. You don't want the dorky feeling of sitting down with a mask on to watch a game or a movie. I know I sure didn't when I was selected by Apple (AAPL) to be one of the press people allowed to put on a Vision Pro — the company's new mixed-reality headset announced last month — at a recent briefing.
I was skeptical. What's the point? I have two eyes. Why do I need them augmented? Why would I want myself to be cut off from whoever I was with to put this helmet on? Then I did it and realized that nothing would ever be the same. It's that much of a game-changer. Here are five reasons why.
1. It is ridiculously easy to use. This wondrous device is so far ahead of anything yet dreamed up by Hollywood. It has enough cameras inside of it that it can read your eyes and you can have your eyes point to a screen. You press the dial on the top-right of the headset and a menu of apps pops up, like swiping up to home on an iPhone or using the dial button on an Apple Watch. Look at the app you want to select, pinch your fingers together and you're in it. All said, it took five minutes for me to get used to it, and then I was hooked. That simple.
2. The visuals are incredible. What you see is real and actual and the colors are magnificent. You can choose to look at whatever you want to look at and see it on a big screen the size of your living room. That's right — that big. I just got back from Iceland with my kids and I can tell you that I wish I had the Vision Pro because I could decide what I wanted to see by experiencing it first on the headset. I would run through every vacation before I went to make sure I maximized my time.
3. There are so many applications. I found it easy to read books. I liked to look at the pictures I could find in history books. I like to look at paintings and sculptures. All there. I didn't get tickets to Taylor Swift's sold-out (everywhere) Eras Tour, but I know watching it on the VisionPro would feel like you were there. It might even be superior to attending with not-so-hot seats.
4. Television is just better ... This is the best thing, the reason why the VisionPro is a must-have. After using the Vision Pro, I can't imagine watching any of my favorite series on a 70-inch high-resolution TV — it is rendered to junk status by this device. I love The Bear, the Hulu series about a talented young chef. I can't believe I now have to watch it on a 70-inch rather than the Vision Pro.
5. ...especially sports. The tale of the tape. I am an intense viewer of sports and I can't believe how I can be courtside with this device or the front rows of a big football or baseball game. I saw a soccer match on the Vision Pro and I ducked when a ball came right at me. Courtside playoff tickets to the New York Knicks cost $30,000. I would have had better seats with the Vision Pro, if Apple can work out that deal with NBA commissioner Adam Silver. But the best thing would be NFL football. I can envision a world where I can put four or five RedZone screens up at once and see all my favorite players on the Skidaddies (my Mad Money fantasy league team) score touchdowns.
Bottom line
Because the device allows you to look to the side or to see the room you are in, you can watch with anyone else and make it more of an event. I can't imagine taking it off once it is on.
As for that dorky feeling, the experience was so engrossing that I got over it really quickly. I didn't want to take it off but it was time for another journalist to come in. I was bummed. As for the fit: At one point, I wasn't enthralled between apps and realized the headset was resting uncomfortably on my nose. I readjusted and was fine. I also feared I was going to get a headache the whole time but I didn't.
Apple says the headset will be available starting at $3,499 beginning early next year. I think that one of the big telcos will offer it as part of a bundle to get you to switch. Some sort of an installment plan where you save some money versus buying it outright.
They'd be nuts not to. It is that great a device.
(Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.)
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