Back in February, I had my first experience with Apple’s new Vision Pro AR/VR headset. My friend Ben kindly let me try his rig in “guest” mode, which meant that the device would temporarily adapt to me. I put it on, tapped some floating dots in the air so it could gauge my head size and eye placement, and off I went, moving windows around in space and turning the digital crown (a small knob on the top right of the goggles) to make various immersive “environments,” as Apple calls them, either fade out or fully surround me.
Almost immediately, I was transported. I was no longer in a coworking space overlooking San Francisco Bay. I was in Yosemite Valley, or on the moon. Unlike other VR headsets, Apple’s technology works like a permeable membrane between the wearer and the real world, so when I focused on Ben his image became sharper, unlike the feeling of being oblivious with other VR experiences. I also found the Vision Pro significantly more intuitive than any of the many VR and AR experiences I’ve tried so far: buttons or words are highlighted as you look at them, and you simply tap your fingers together to select them.
Intrigued by that first experience with Ben’s headset, I followed up with a professional demo at an Apple Store a few weeks later, and experienced even more amazing features. In one immersive demo, I sat before a birthday cake as a child blew out the candles in front of me. The sound and visuals surrounded me, smoke billowing toward my face. The sensation of being inside the scene was utterly convincing. Some of the environments Apple has created even adapt to the time of day—for example, the sky in the immersive environment might dim at twilight. It was utterly magical.
Of course, as a publishing executive, I was most interested in what reading felt like in the Vision Pro. So, I opened Apple Books and easily navigated around covers and pages. With a simple gesture, pages can become as large as you like. Turning pages requires only a simple tap or swipe. And the words and images are incredibly crisp.
Audiobooks are also a pleasure to listen to in the Vision Pro, with its excellent surround sound. Furthermore, some audiobooks come with materials that would be impossible to render verbally—like genealogical charts, photographs, and maps—which, with the VisionPro, can easily be displayed in their own windows while you listen.
And video—especially videos shot in 3D—are more immersive than any IMAX theater. Watching video on the Vision Pro reminded me of the “feelies” of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and their seductive, emotional, and visceral power—a power that in Huxley’s dystopia keeps the audience entranced and docile. If I owned this device, I could readily imagine escaping a less than ideal environment by putting on the Vision Pro, like the characters in Ready Player One or The Three Body Problem.
As I read on the Vision Pro, I imagined a future reader tuning their “environment” to mimic the book she is reading—for example, turning the pages of Alfred Lansing’s Endurance, about Ernest Shackleton’s famed Antarctic expedition while surrounded by blue and white Antarctic ice sheets. Just imagine following Harry Potter’s adventures while the gothic library of Hogwarts glows in the background.
Of course, this kind of future reading experience is, for now, still aspirational—as suggested by the Vision Pro’s price: a hefty $3499. But it is almost certainly coming. If recent reports are accurate, the next version of the VisionPro is likely to be significantly more affordable.
It may seem far off, but my experience got me thinking that it’s not too soon to begin considering the future of VR-powered reading and writing. The Vision Pro suggests we are poised to go beyond mere entertainment into an astounding new place, where the boundaries of art and life begin to blur. How quickly we get there will depend on a number of factors, including (perhaps most importantly) how eager consumers are for the experience. But my experience suggests that when more people engage with this new reading horizon, there may be no turning back.
Maja Thomas is the chief innovation officer at Hachette Livre and the director of the Hachette business development and innovation department.
