Thank You, Apple! May I Have Another?
Juli Clover
In the good old days of television, we used to get new episodes of programming weekly. In the Netflix age of television, we got them all at once. In Apple's Vision Pro age of television, we get one episode every 16 weeks – 112 days, to be exact.
Apple is set to release a new immersive video on the Vision Pro on Friday, with "Parkour" labeled as episode two in the "Adventure" series. Episode one is the "Highlining" video that shows highliner Faith Dickey walking across a tightrope 3,000 feet above Norway's fjords.
I joke, but I don't. It's utterly ridiculous that we're having to wait this long between new bits of content – which aren't even truly entertainment as much as they are marketing – for the Vision Pro. A device which I'll remind you costs $3,500.
To be fair to Apple, I'm certain these "shows" aren't easy to produce.1 To be less fair, how the hell didn't Apple have a whole pipeline of these lined up and ready to roll at a regular cadence post-Vision Pro launch?! It would seem to point to my earlier suggestion that Apple really should have waited to launch the device.
We can debate how much the device is struggling out of the gate. But without question, it's huffing fumes when it comes to content. At this point, we're getting one, seemingly random new bit of immersive video every few weeks. And again, it's not great entertainment, it's short bits of marketing – sometimes for Apple's own products – which are cut together in ways that suggests Apple doesn't actually understand their own format yet. Where are the actual television shows in Apple Immersive Video? Movies? Even just a documentary?
Again, just judging from this cadence, we're years away from such content. I hope I'm wrong, but I fear I'm not! Or maybe we can expect workplace safety videos sooner? Perhaps this latest 12 minutes of content will tell us more...2
Update May 23, 2024: Well, here's a bit more content from Disney at least...
M.G. Siegler
1 I mean, I only really assume that because it takes 16 weeks to release new ones, apparently. But yes, it's "180-degree 3D 8K video recordings captured with spatial audio" -- impressive, which is why we all want more of it!
2 This second episode follows "Highlining" -- the video features highliner Faith Dickey walking across a tightrope 3,000 feet above Norway's fjords, which was the best of the initial batch of content, IMO. Simply terrifying to watch! Again, we want more of this!