Apple just announced a surge in Vision Pro apps, nearly tripling the best estimates from late January. Apple states that the Vision Pro will have at least 600 native apps on February 2, an impressive beginning for a VR headset. That’s particularly good news for early adopters who will start receiving the Vision Pro tomorrow.
Among the new apps, Apple highlighted Box, an immersive content browser app for enterprise and education. Product models can be viewed within your room in full 3D. Box posted a YouTube video demonstrating how an automotive powertrain can be taken from a window and spun to see any angle.
Meanwhile, MindNode, OmniFocus, and OmniPlan help you organize and manage projects more effectively. Fantastical is a popular calendar app that lets you sync and plan with any Apple device, even the Vision Pro.
Numerics is a business visualization app that presents several live widgets. Widgets support over 4,000 key performance indicators (KPI) and can be placed anywhere in your space to help keep track of your important data.
The streaming service, Max, also announced that its native app will be available at launch on February 2. It will include an “Iron Throne Room” immersive environment for subscribers, where “fans can transform their space” into the throne room from House of the Dragon.
Beyond all the newly announced apps, the Vision Pro will still have a full suite of Apple system apps, access to Apple TV+ and several other video streaming services, and Apple Arcade.
Less than two weeks ago, Apple analyst Mark Gurman said there were about 230 apps, leading to some concern about a slow start.
So far, about 230 visionOS native apps are ready for release. That’ll likely rise by Feb. 2 – but I doubt significantly. There are new AR heavy apps coming from Lowe’s and JCrew, and the rest are from indie developers or the entertainment + productivity apps Apple has announced.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 21, 2024
While the tripling in size in impressive for a device of its type, it’s quite slow for a new Apple product category. The Apple Watch arrived in 2015 with 3,000 apps at launch, for example.
Of course, developing apps for the tiny 2D screen of an Apple Watch and watchOS is much simpler than creating visionOS apps that harness the potential of an immersive computer that tracks your gaze and overlays super-sharp text and graphics in multiple windows that float in your room.
Still, Apple claims the Vision Pro will have over a million compatible apps, the majority of those being iPad apps that also work on the Vision Pro in 2D windows.
