Apple hasn’t been shy about its view of the Vision Pro as an enterprise device with real-world business applications. (The company even highlighted business apps during the mixed-reality headset’s introduction at this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference.)
While there’s plenty to say about how the Vision Pro can (or can’t) fit into workers’ daily activities, it’s important that IT departments get prepared to support this new technology before Apple rolls it out in 2024.
Focus on the who, not the when
To be fair, companies still have time. Apple hasn’t shipped the Vision Pro, has been very cool on giving developers access to it — and to workshops on developing apps for it — and will likely face serious supply constraints when it does ship. Oh, and the $3,500 cost will shrink the market quite a bit.
The challenge: that sliver of the buying public with enough disposable income to purchase a first-generation Vision Pro is almost certain to include executives and other high-level employees — exactly the type of people who expect white-glove treatment when it comes to technology (or anything else). This is the same demographic that brought the first iPads into the office 13 years ago and always seems to have the latest iPhone or other tech device. And they’ll expect their IT operations to offer support for the Vision Pro quickly, if not on day one.
Does Vision Pro have a place in business? Does it matter?
At least initially, the Vision Pro may not have an obvious use in any workplace. It might well look like an executive’s new tech toy. But that’s exactly the same kind of argument that was made about the iPad, a view that fell apart when doctors, lawyers, and executives instantly saw how they could use it in their professional lives and took it to work.
Vision Pro is a whole different product and product category. Some use cases are easy to imagine — medical or engineering telepresence and augmented reality come to mind — while many others might not be obvious until someone actually gets their hands on the device and starts experimenting.
That’s just one of the challenges enterprises face, and it may well be the easiest to handle. With so many unknowns, it’s pretty much impossible right now for any IT department to have answers, but IT pros and executives should at least be working to get their arms around the possibilities for Vision Pro before it ships.
Apple pitched its Vision Pro, at least initially, as a business-oriented solution.
As in other areas, IT needs to partner with business users and executives about Vision Pro. Doing so gives IT decision-makers visibility into what’s expected of them, allows them to adapt to changing situations, and gets them better prepared for the day a corporate executive walks in the door with a Vision Pro. By opening doors and starting discussions now, IT becomes a partner in a successful Vision Pro trial, not an obstacle to be overcome.
These…
2023-11-24 02:41:02
Post from www.computerworld.com rnrn