That’s what one of the leaks stated…
The way I see it, is similar to admsh, this thing is a test bed… and we’ve seen Apple do this before:
The Apple Watch, the original one (which has been renamed “Series 0” retroactively) had an… odd pitch. It was a watch, but it also was like a “phone away from phone” with the most popular messaging apps, and Uber and food delivery services. Apple got
WayForward, a popular budget-ish game company to make a
RPG for the watch. They had fitness tracking, navigation everything you’d expect from a phone. They also offered a $10k 24 karat gold one, thinking it could take off as “luxury jewelry”.
It didn’t take until the 4th iteration, the “Series 3” for the Apple Watch to more or less settle on what it is now: a smart watch with great fitness tracking abilities, its own (optional) cell phone connection to make basic calls, send texts, and stream music/podcasts/audiobooks. People didn’t need or want it for games, ordering food, or as a piece of jewelry.
Apple is positioning the Vision Pro as a computer replacement. Instead of buying a MacBook or iPad or iMac, you’d buy one of these, as a full computer. They‘re also positioning it as a “super media” device, allowing high frame rate 3D movies with Atmos on a (simulated) 100 ft screen. A sports watching device with in depth stats. An interactive encyclopedia where you can move around objects to look at them. An enterprise device for configuring large machines, etc etc.
I highly suspect that by whatever inevitable third or fourth iteration some of these ideas will have quietly been dropped in favor of what people have actually using It for. The word “Pro” and the price are very intentional here, they’re attracting power users who are willing to jump on whatever Apple does, make cool things for it, and mess around with it. You also can’t just buy one… at least that’s what the presentation implied. They made it seem like you have to set up an appointment at an Apple Store to buy one, since they have multiple gaskets that fit onto the headset for comfort, plus prescription lenses, so buying it requires someone alongside you finding the right choices for your head.