Unauthoritative Pronouncements

Something I’ve been thinking about since Apple released Submerged for the Apple Vision Pro the other week is that almost no one is going to get to experience Submerged. I would like to see it, certainly, but I’m not buying a $3500 headset to see a single short film. Certainly, the pace at which Apple releases Vision Pro specific experiences doesn’t warrant such a thing.

Apple should sell tickets to go sit and experience these special Vision Pro events. At first, I was thinking of it more like movie theater tickets available throughout the day. You buy a ticket to sit in an Apple Store with one of the demo headsets that sees very little use, and watch the movie. However, the Vision Pro doesn’t block out the bustling store. It’s not supposed to. So we’re probably looking at an event on certain evenings where they can have a more controlled atmosphere in the store. You pay your $20 to sit with a dozen other people in the dark and experience a flooding submarine.

You experience Marvel’s What If. You experience whatever very, very, very old sports event they just released.

You’re not renting a unit, or dealing with any kind of ownership. It’s like a pair of 3D glasses at a theater, or boarding the Star Tours ride.

If people start to feel like there’s enough reason to own one, then obviously they can buy one, but otherwise Apple can try to make some money off of short experiences that are completely inaccessible in any other scenario.

I was not wowed by my demo of the Vision Pro, and I see absolutely no reason to book another demo —none!— but I would pay to see Submerged at 9 PM on a Thursday or something. Then pay to see whatever blip of media appears on the Vision Pro radar three months after that.

This just seems a lot more viable to me than trying to sell a $3500 headset that really doesn’t suit most people. It’s even the kind of thing they could test once, at select stores, and decide if it’s worthwhile to Apple. It may not sell hardware, but it might get people more than zero percent interested in the possibility of what a platform like Vision Pro can do.