There were, of course, photos of the goggles looking very sleek against a black background. There was a fun video of several lucky individuals using the product in the comfort of their pristine pink homes and anonymous hotel rooms.
But the lack of an actual person wearing the product onstage in Cupertino, California was a notable omission. As is the fact that no one talked about the design except in terms of functionality – and the fact that the device allows others to see a wearer’s eyes, a real step forward in the world of headset style. (They also didn’t utter the word “wearables.”)
But if any company should know how much aesthetics matter when transforming a piece of technology into an accessory for life, it’s Apple. That’s always been part of its distinction, starting with the iMac in its many colors. Thus the iPod and the iPhone made the leap from consumer goods to markers of taste and identity. With their rounded corners and sleek lines, they looked so good; so sleek and cool. They arouse desire, as a large handbag does, even before usefulness is considered.
And perhaps no device Apple has made where aesthetics matter as much as this one.
It cannot be hidden. This may be why tech companies have struggled with glasses, an accessory they’re seemingly convinced is some kind of new frontier in personal tech, but that no one has ever quite cracked: not Google with its glasses or Meta with its Ray-Ban collaboration or it’s Balmain x Oculus. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, what you put around them matters in a kind of profound way.
By making the Vision Pro look like glasses, Apple is wading into the schools of pre-existing stereotypes, personality clichés, and history. We choose glasses for all sorts of reasons: to look good, to look cool, to look glamorous; to look like Gloria Steinem or Jack Nicholson or John Lennon. Above all to look individual. And walking around with half your face covered by glass, no matter how swirly the screen is, is a signifier for pod people. (On the other hand, if you secretly harbor fantasies of being like Eileen Gu, this might be for you.)
To be fair, maybe that will change. Perhaps by the time the headset arrives in stores next year, priced at around $3,500, the headbands will come in a variety of colors and materials, and the device itself will come in a different shade than putty, allowing for some form of self-expression. is . Maybe it’s possible to dazzle the glasses (that would be nice) or add stickers or decorate the lanyard. Apple obviously worked pretty hard on the fit, with all sorts of adjustable components, and that’s quite something. And it only weighs about a pound.
