The Vision Pro finally has its 'killer app.' Apple can thank Nvidia for that

Published Thu, Mar 21 20243:39 PM EDTUpdated Fri, Mar 22 202411:51 AM EDT

The Apple Vision Pro has had two major knocks against it since being announced last June: the hefty price tag and the lack of a killer app. However, both criticisms of the mixed reality headset lost their bite this week after a somewhat overlooked announcement from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Speaking at Nvidia's highly anticipated GTC conference — nicknamed the "AI Woodstock" by Bank of America — Huang told the audience of developers, engineers, and other tech pros that its 3D design platform Omniverse can now be streamed directly to Vision Pro headsets. For the uninitiated, Nvidia's Omniverse is a cloud-based platform that allows developers — no matter where they are located — to connect the design apps they use every day to one central inter-operable ecosystem. They can work together remotely in a simulated environment. It's a major leap in how corporate teams can operate. That doesn't mean Vision Pro sales will start booming overnight, but it bodes well for its commercial future. In the past, one team would have to complete and finalize their work before sending it along to be uploaded and worked on by the next team, who would then have to finalize their work and send it on to the next stage or send it back for revisions. For example, if Team A is using Adobe Photoshop and Team B is using Autodesk, Team A may need to finalize and export their work from Photoshop before Team B can upload it into Autodesk and continue with the design process. That's very time-consuming. A team needs to complete its stage of a project before the next team can add its input. Nvidia's Omniverse platform changes that, allowing several teams to work on the project simultaneously. Moreover, by offloading the heavy computer work to accelerated cloud environments, teams can use regular laptops instead of super machines. Or they can use Vision Pro headsets, without the need to plug headsets into into local computers to access the apps or more computing power. Why is that so exciting? When thinking about digital twins — hyperrealistic digital versions of physical items — for designing shoes, cars, handbags, or entire factories — this is a great way to visualize it on a digital overlay made possible by Apple's spatial computing platform. Omniverse was already an incredibly impressive platform in terms of productivity. But applying it to the Vision Pro means users can now access and interact with digital twins in a 3D environment. Rather than spin an image of a car around on a two-dimensional computer screen, designers can physically walk around the simulated life-sized vehicle to better understand the design under different lighting conditions from different angles. They can walk the factory floor and see what everything looks like, get a sense of size and space, see how items fit in the space, and think through the logistics of operating that factory before anything physical is installed. For a designer, that allows a level of immersion never before possible. It makes the Vision Pro a go-to piece of hardware that can take the design process to the next level. In other words, the Omniverse platform becomes the killer app for Vision Pro headsets. More specifically, it's the killer platform that ties together multiple apps in an enterprise setting. It's almost like an all-new operating system geared towards enterprise-level designers. Why does this change our view on the pricing, currently $3,499 a pop? At the enterprise level, productivity gains more than offsets an expensive headset. Moreover, the size and weight of the device aren't as much of a concern if it is being used in a professional setting where comfort may not be the top priority. Nvidia's decision to support the Vision Pro not only provides for an Omniverse experience that is more immersive than anything ever seen before, it also expands the use case for the headset with a killer platform and should have enterprises across industries taking a much closer look at Apple's spatial computing device. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

A customer tries on the Apple Vision Pro headset during the product launch at an Apple Store in New York City on Feb. 2, 2024.

Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images

The Apple Vision Pro has had two major knocks against it since being announced last June: the hefty price tag and the lack of a killer app.