Apple Opens the Vision Pro Content Spigot a Bit
Another weird press release from Apple this week – though the HomePod mini color "upgrade" weirdness was tested by the 38-word press release title for Apple touting their (impressive) Emmy nominations – this time for Vision Pro content:
Starting this week, Apple is releasing all-new series and films captured in Apple Immersive Video that will debut exclusively on Apple Vision Pro. Apple Immersive Video is a remarkable storytelling format that leverages 3D video recorded in 8K with a 180-degree field of view and Spatial Audio to transport viewers to the center of the action.
"Starting this week" meaning there is one new bit of content they're releasing this week. Okay, but how long will that tide us over for? Well, Boundless is six minutes and 32 seconds long. So after that six and a half minutes is up, we'll have to wait until August to get the second episode of Wild Life, which will also undoubtedly be just a few minutes in length. The month after that we'll get Elevated, another new "show" which will undoubtedly be a few minutes in length.
I mean, I guess four weeks (at a regular cadence) in between new bits of content is better than upwards of 16 weeks (!) in between sporadic content drops, but it's still not nearly enough. If Apple TV+ still has a content volume problem, how would we classify Vision Pro's content issues? At least Apple TV+ is giving us some great content in the form of full television seasons and feature-length films, not a few minutes of content every month.
Look, the content is impressive. Without question, it's a technical achievement and in many cases, truly a marvel to behold. It's so good that it should be the main selling point of the device! But let's be clear: it's also still mainly just demos. This new show Elevated sounds like Apple's (fantastic) screensavers long found on Apple TV, just in more immersive formatting.
I'm sure this is all incredibly hard to produce, but I also just believe Apple drastically underestimated what they would need to launch with, content-wise. And it would have been wise to wait perhaps another year to launch if they knew the pantry would be so paltry.
Anyway, obviously Apple realizes this all now, which is why we get the above press release. It's essentially: "don't worry people – and especially new purchasers around the world – more content is coming!" And it's starting to sound a bit more promising:
Later this year, users can enjoy special performances featuring the world’s biggest artists, starting with an immersive experience from The Weeknd; the first scripted Apple Immersive short film, Submerged, written and directed by Academy Award winner Edward Berger; a behind-the-scenes and on-the-court view of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend; and Big-Wave Surfing, the first installment of a new sports series with Red Bull.
The Alicia Keys experience that originally shipped with Vision Pro was one of the better bits of content (but yes, too short), so hopefully The Weeknd thing continues us down that promising path. But I'm far more interested in an actually scripted bit of content as it sounds like Submerged will be. Though yes, I'm worried by "short film" – the best we can hope for there is probably 20-30 minutes? But probably more like 5 - 10 minutes, would still be my guess. Again, I know all of this is hard, but how long will it be until we get true feature-length Apple Immersive content? A year? Two? More?
The NBA All-Star Weekend stuff will undoubtedly look great, but if it's anything like the MLS highlight reel we got, it will be both too short and have strange cuts that take you out of the immersive experience – hopefully Apple learned from that, but we'll see.