Apple’s announcement of the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2023 was an impressive affair in many ways, from the slick design and obvious tech chops of the device itself to the high production values of the video showing them off. But the best performance of the night may have been the presenters’ intricate dance to avoid the ghosts of past failures.
That’s because, as usual, Apple is not the first to this market (at least in the broad sense—Vision Pro is breaking new ground in terms of some specifics). Google tried to make augmented reality a thing back in, none has yet pushed into the mainstream or built a convincing case that VR is a cool technology for cool people.
