Apple doesn’t usually launch its devices without years of development. Steve Jobs needed 3 years to develop the iPhone and he brought technology that Apple had already tested at the time of the iPod. However, there is one device that seems to have beaten all these timings. Apple has been working on Vision Pro since at least 2008.
15 years of preparing the future: Apple Vision Pro
There was no iPad on the market yet, the iPhone was not seen as the future and Apple was already thinking far ahead. The Cupertino company is known for taking its time when it comes to entering new product categories, but a 2008 patent shows that the company had been working on the Vision Pro for at least 15 years before its final release.
Both the patent drawing and the device description are remarkably consistent with the product that was finally released in 2024...
The collaborator of MacworldDan Moren, remembered a 2008 article he wrote about the patent.
Early in my career writing about Apple (nearly two decades ago), I wrote for Macworld's now-defunct MacUser blog. My colleague Jason Snell recently shared an Internet Archive link to the site with me, and as I was going down memory lane, I came across a surprising story about an Apple patent, accompanied by a familiar-looking image.
The patent drawing looks very close to the final product.
The description takes us back to what we know today:
A newly discovered patent, filed by Apple in February, reveals that the company may be working on a screen that can simulate the experience of being in a virtual environment with the help of smart sensors. Apparently, these sensors will be able to detect head and even eye movements, adapting the video accordingly so that the user feels like they are in a real environment.
According to Moren, the visualization technology needed to turn the idea into reality didn't even exist at the time, but Apple still had a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve - and was prepared to continue developing it until it was finally viable, although or a very high price.
The big question now is how much longer it will take for the company to be able to offer a more affordable Apple Vision product without making too many compromises along the way.
The latest reports suggest that Apple has put this project on the back burner for now, focusing on a second-generation Pro device that is expected to be powered by an M5 chip.
Source: pplware.sapo.pt
