Remember when the Vision Pro was going to change how we live, work, and pretend to enjoy staring at floating spreadsheets?
Six months in, the $3,500 face computer has a library of apps that can charitably be described as "a work in progress." The killer app, it turns out, might be returning it.
The headset does a few genuinely wild things — watching a movie on a virtual IMAX screen while your popcorn sits in the real world is a legitimately cool party trick.
The problem is that after you impress your friends, you're left with a device begging for software that justifies its existence.
And the App Store is delivering… a lot of ports.
The most popular Vision Pro apps right now read like a list of things you could already do on your phone, just heavier.
A meditation app that puts you in a floating zen garden?
Productivity tools that let you arrange windows in 3D space, which sounds futuristic until you realize your neck hurts after 40 minutes of "next-level" multitasking.
Congratulations, you've invented standing at a desk.
The genuinely interesting stuff is coming from smaller developers — spatial puzzles, weird art experiments, and a handful of games that actually use the eye-tracking and hand gestures in clever ways.
But here's the catch: nobody wants to build serious software for a device that sold in the low hundreds of thousands, not millions.
Developers follow money, and right now the money is still on the iPhone.
Apple's pitch is that this is the "early days," the same line they used when the iPhone launched without an App Store.
But the iPhone was $499 and fit in your pocket.
The Vision Pro is a $3,500 ski goggle that you wear alone in a room while your family wonders what happened to you.
The path from "dev kit for enthusiasts" to "must-have product" is a lot shorter when normal people can afford to come along for the ride.
There's also the small matter of what people actually do with it.
Early adopters report using it for movies, then putting it on a shelf.
A device that's amazing for two weeks and dusty by week three isn't a platform — it's a very expensive novelty.
Apps alone won't fix that, but the wrong apps definitely won't.
So what should you do if you're eyeing one?
Unless you're a developer, a VR true believer, or someone with a very specific burning need to watch Dune on a virtual screen the size of a billboard, wait.
The software is a ghost town with nice lighting.
Apple has time to fix this, but buying in now means paying full price to be a beta tester.
The Vision Pro isn't doomed — Apple has deep pockets and a habit of grinding until things work.
Final Thoughts
But "the apps are coming" has been the refrain since day one, and the App Store still feels like a trade show floor where half the booths are empty.