Apple Vision Pro will be the platform for the killer VR app, not Meta

Ever since the dawn of personal computing, there has always been a worry about how the public could be tempted to buy new hardware until there was enough new software written for it to make it demonstrably useful. Apple, not Meta, is in a prime position to make this happen with VR.

Early advertisements for home computers often suggested that buyers would be laying down $2,000 or more to streamline their food preparation. Presumably, the ads suggested it could possibly make some sense to place a steel box, bulky CRT monitor and various cabled drives and other peripherals next to boiling water, steam, and other heat sources as well as sticky sauces, fluffy powders and other threats to the electronics.

"Computer assisted cooking" was only one of a variety of impractical ideas that Apple floated in the late '70s as it was trying to imagine how people might use their new technology purchases. Fortunately, these clumsy "solutions looking for buyers" were eclipsed by far more practical, powerful tools that unleashed buyers' own creativity and solved real needs.