Apple's Vision Pro arrived with the usual keynote fireworks, but six months into its shelf life, the headset's app library tells a quieter, more uncomfortable story.
Developers who rushed to build for the device are quietly stepping back, and the users who spent rent money on a face computer are noticing the silence.
Fewer than a thousand apps are optimized for visionOS, compared to the millions available on iPhone.
Several high-profile studios that promised spatial experiences have either delayed indefinitely or pivoted to cheaper platforms.
When a device's flagship selling point becomes a ghost town, something has gone wrong.
The apps that do exist fall into two camps: tech demos dressed up as products, and direct ports of iPad apps that look like floating rectangles.
Neither justifies the price of admission.
Watching a movie on a virtual screen is impressive for twenty minutes, until you remember your TV already does that without strapping a battery to your skull.
What's happening here isn't a hardware failure.
Developers build where users are, and users aren't wearing headsets to check email.
The Vision Pro is a magnificent solution searching for a problem, and the app ecosystem's hesitation reflects a broader truth: Americans don't want to interact with the world through goggles, no matter how polished the glass.
Meanwhile, the headset's most vocal defenders have shifted their argument from "this changes everything" to "give it time." That's not a product pitch.
And in consumer tech, prayers rarely ship as software updates.
There's a deeper issue that Apple's marketing glosses over.
The company built a premium device for a niche audience, then seemed surprised when developers treated it like a niche device.
Spatial computing may eventually matter, but "eventually" doesn't pay developer salaries or convince families to spend a mortgage payment on a toy.
The collapse of enthusiasm around Vision Pro apps isn't just an Apple problem.
It's a warning about how we've let tech companies sell us the future before it exists.
We're asked to pay now for promises that might arrive later, and when the apps don't come, we're told we simply didn't believe hard enough.
If the Vision Pro's app store stays this sparse, the headset becomes a very expensive paperweight with excellent optics.
Final Thoughts
And American consumers, stretched thin and tired of being sold beta products at premium prices, are running out of patience for it.