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Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

So Apple, the company that doesn't sell an enterprise cloud computing platform and doesn't sell a business productivity suite wants to sell the Vision Pro to specialized industries?

Excuse me for being very skeptical.

I don't see a whole lot of Apple marketing material talking about the Vision Pro as a professional device. They have a grand total of one press release that highlights different uses for business. There's no landing page that says "contact sales" or anything like that you'd see for an enterprisey specialized solution.

In my mind the more plausible explanation is that Apple misjudged the pricing strategy for the Vision Pro, a device that it considers to be primarily a consumer content device.

If the Vision Pro was a $1000 product they would have potentially had a hit. But I think what's going to happen is that Apple is going to have a product like that in 2026 and when it comes out the response is going to be quite muted.

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Apple literally has Enterprise specific APis for it https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2024/10139

Also in terms of press releases, a quick google search shows these two

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/04/apple-vision-pro-brin...

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/03/apple-vision-pro-unlo...

Just because Apples consumer marketing pages don’t target enterprise, doesn’t mean they don’t target enterprise as a product. See the Mac Pro webpage that also doesn’t mention enterprise contacts https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/ but it’s clearly not targeted for just consumers either.

I'm sorry do any actual surgeons or airline techs use these apps? I would be very skeptical that it's used in any kind of sizable number (or that it's even allowed in surgery, frankly).

Yes they are. Here are articles and videos for surgery use. Previously, the HoloLens was used for the surgery market and the Vision Pro has largely replaced it.

https://time.com/7093536/surgeons-apple-vision-pro/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39140319/

https://youtu.be/tAmXzksBvpw?si=LX_VvqYjSUH43Pwd

https://youtu.be/3MoOB7Er-vw?feature=shared

That's impressive, but it is currently not licensed for use in surgeries. The first article mentions that they can only use it through an IRB-approved study that all patients have the right to opt-out of.

But yeah, if Apple can become a medical device company, it would unlock a huge revenue stream for them. Looks like these people are optimistic, I'll take them at their word for that.

I personally don't know if Apple is willing to put the investment into the devices to make them viable as medical devices. There is a reason medical devices have huge costs, and that's largely because of the human effort involved to go multiple rounds with the FDA and other regulatory bodies to get a device approved for use in medical facilities outside of trials and studies.

To note, the items used in surgery don’t all need to be medically certified for use if they’re not involved in the interaction with the person being operated on. They just need to adhere to certain standards and maintenance.

This is why you’ll often see a range of display devices in operating theatres. You’ll even see iPads or other tablets that aren’t necessarily certified for use.

As a daily user of Apple Vision Pro, I can see the value of creating a much cheaper non-pro version.

But I could also see the value of a comparably priced or even higher priced version, with ultra versions of their M chips, going all in as a Mac or MacBook upgrade in terms of user interface.

I use mine as a MacBook Pro screen upgrade. I would love to dispense with the MacBook, while retaining Mac level (as apposition to limited iOS style) applications.

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