Compare it to the cost of dual Studio Displays and it looks at least a bit more reasonable. 
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Bird/animal/plant ID, hiking/GPS location/direction - I think you nailed it!
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Not my style. I had my choice of equipment and was using a five year old 13" MacBook when I retired.
A WSJ reporter’s experience with the headset:
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As someone who’s spending the summer away from my multi-studio display setup, I think the ability to set up a couple big virtual displays in AR space is probably enough to get my money.
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Apple literally went big or go home with Vision Pro. They thought about the experience of people with prescription lenses, the weight of the device, the lack of wand or hand device, environmental awareness, and not requiring a companion device to run it.
I just wish I have the money to spend and this definitely will not be available in my country. I can’t even buy Homepod locally. With added customized lens, I have to pay more. I’m already paying $220 just for my prescription lens without the frame.
I’ll be waiting for Apple Vision or Apple Vision Air in the future.
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The Verge’s editor-in-chief Nilay Patel also got to try it:
Apple’s ability to do mixed reality is seriously impressive. At one point in a full VR Avatar demo I raised my hands to gesture at something, and the headset automatically detected my hands and overlaid them on the screen, then noticed I was talking to someone and had them appear as well. Reader, I gasped .
Apple might’ve cracked it.
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I’ve been following this space (wearable computing) since forever. One person who was always on the bleeding edge is Steve Mann Steve Mann - Cyborg Anthropology
I made lame attempts at various times to hack together some form of this, but was never successful. At one point it finally dawned on me that I owned the successor to this, it was my iPhone. But it didn’t have a headset, that was the missing piece.
VisionPro is, in my opinion, the penultimate version of this. It’s what he theoretically was shooting for. (in reality, he’s much to esoteric and idealistic to ever opt for a closed system) But it’s the first time I thought that we have reached the ideal, although Google Glasses was pretty damned close.
In one sense, while VP has lost the tether to a separate computing device, they haven’t lost the tether for power. I wonder if you can velcro that power pack to the back of the headset? Seems like @MacSparky might appreciate that option lol
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I read the Wall Street journal article but nothing struck me there. It was all fluff.
This one however really got me thinking because it was detailed enough to see if the ideas for use might work with this device.
Comments based on the order in which they appeared in the article.
The magnetic snap in lenses to correct for poor vision. Because I immediately thought of magnifying lenses for detailed circuit board work or animal or human surgery. The overlay of patient vitals or references like CAT scan data. Combine that with some additional ultrasound sensors and I might even be able to look through the sheep to see the position of the lamb I am trying to correct rather than having to do it all blind and by feel.
IR Illuminators. I can see adaptations of this in firefighting gear to see hot spots overlayed over building blueprints or forest fires. We’ve used a lot of the IR equipment (We have several surplus firefighting handheld IR devices) and my husband integrated one onto a drone with side by side display of thre IR and the visual light view of scenes as we flew over the flock. Lots of applications for that sort of technology but this could be for searchers on the ground.
The reviewer indicated that it wouldn’t be reasonable to wear the headset to a kids birthday party. As a lomg term multiple corrective lens wearer (contacts, plus 2 different sets of additional glasses) if the lens change is as simple as they say and the front can be the equivalent of safety glasses I could easily wear it all the time.
One thing I want to know, can you basically create a movie of the combined AR view? If yes there are MANY additional applications. Especially if you can have an expert wear the headset and perform the physical actions and then play it back for the person trying to learn.
If it was in the $1500 range I’d be in line to get one for testing. (It’s a tool dear, really 
) But I lknow we’d end up with 2 so we each gcould try our own applications.
Again a key factor is the API to control and use it by ordinary developers.
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I haven’t read any of the pieces from the critics who got to try it, but based on the keynote, I think Apple is probably well on their way to creating a new kind of computing platform. I don’t want it (yet), but my wife (who is not an early adopter type) thought it looked super cool and doesn’t think it’s worse than people being on their phones all the time, as far as social stigma.
It’s priced high, yep, but give it a couple years of iteration and I think these will be everywhere. The jump from 5mm to 3mm M and R series chips in a year or two is probably going to have an iPad 2-style effect on Gen 2.
I just hope that this is an actually useful platform, and not just an expensive consumption tool for people silly enough to not realize the value of shared experiences. That remains to be seen.
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After seeing the release video, it looks great. I just hope this one will not give me headaches!
I would not buy one personally still, but I’m looking forward to my work buying me one to try out!
Do you think the price will wind up coming down significantly? Or do you just think that people will get used to spending $3500 for a product?
I would imagine that a V2 or V3 of this product wouldn’t get much cheaper, as that’s not really how Apple tends to do things. I would imagine better technology, more features, extended battery power, increased durability, and that sort of thing.
But that could significantly limit their market.
The iPhone went from $499 for the original to $199 for the 3G (both on contract).
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The MacBook Air had a similar drop in price for its second generation.
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But the $499 wasn’t carrier-subsidized. It required a contract, but the carrier wasn’t subsidizing it. Apple tried to get a chunk of the monthly fee (the fee the carrier would typically use to subsidize the phone), and then reconsidered that part of the business model in favor of greater market penetration with the 3G - at which point AT&T kicked in the carrier subsidy. The actual MSRP of both phones was pretty much the same.
Do you remember how much?
I would also suggest that both of these were under “Steve Jobs Apple”, and that “Tim Cook Apple” functions differently.
I believe that the original 11" Air dropped to (barely) below $1000, a price that made it an instant buy for me 
The original MacBook Air (with the little flip down door for the ports) debuted at $1799.
This closing statement in a WSJ article sums up the challenge for Apple:
A face-mounted computer cabled to a fanny pack [costing $3,500] will be Apple’s toughest sale yet.”
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I mean, the existence of a Vision Pro implies the existence of a non-pro model. I’m guessing that, on a long enough timeline, the prices range over a series of models as much as Mac prices do. But what’s the experience like for $1000 USD? Who knows.
The original 8GB iPhone sold for $599 and later Apple dropped it to $399. Those of us that paid full price received a $100 Apple Store credit.
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