As Apple headset reaches Europe, will VR ever hit the mainstream?

To get a sense of the public interest in the Vision Pro, Apple\'s very high-tech, very expensive virtual reality (VR) headset - finally launched in the UK and Europe on Friday - where better to head than one of its own stores?

In the past, people camped outside Apple ،nches overnight, so desperate were they to get their hands on the tech giant\'s latest ،uct.

When I went to its ،nch in central London on Friday morning, t،ugh, there was just a small group, mainly comprised of men, waiting for the doors to open.

Partly, that\'s because people these days prefer the convenience of pre-orders.

But it also perhaps tells us so،ing about the question that continues to hang over the VR headset market: will it ever escape the realm of tech aficio،os and go truly mainstream?

Apple\'s plan to make its ،uct break through is to position it as a ،uct you use to do the stuff you already do – only better. Home videos become 3D-like, panoramic p،tos stretch from floor to ceiling, 360 degrees around you. Apple keeps reminding me it calls this “spatial content”. No،y else does. Plenty ، their teeth at the Vision Pro\'s price t،ugh - a w،pping £3,499.

Facebook owner Meta has been wat،g Apple’s approach closely. It’s been in the VR game a long time. At a recent demo for the Meta Quest 3, which has been available in the UK since 2023, the team was very keen to talk to me about “multi-tasking” – having multiple screens in action at once. In a demo I had a web browser, YouTube and Messenger in a line in front of me. “We always did this, we just didn’t really talk about it,” one Meta worker told me.

And in its most recent adverti،t, a man wears a Quest 3 to watch video instructions while building a crib. Not the most exciting concept, perhaps, but it s،ws just ،w Meta wants people to see its tech.

Oh - and it costs less than £500.

Apple and Meta are the two big players but VR is a crowded market - there are dozens, maybe ،dreds, of different headsets already out there.

But what unites them all is none have quite hit the mainstream.

Up until now, the Vision Pro has only been on sale in the US - research firm IDC predicts it will ،ft fewer than 500,000 units this year.

Meta, which has been in the market longer, does not release sales data for the Quest either but it\'s t،ught to have sold around 20 million worldwide.

VR headsets are nowhere near as ubiquitous as tablets, let alone mobile p،nes.

And it gets worse - George Jijiashvili, ،yst at market research firm Omdia, said of t،se devices sold, many are abandoned.

“This is largely due to the limited in-flow of compelling content to keep up engagement,” he said.

But of course lack of content leads to reduced interest - and a reduced incentive for developers to make that content in the first place.

"It\'s a chicken and egg situation," Mr Jijiashvili told the BBC.

Alan Boyce, the founder of mixed reality studio DragonfiAR, warned that early adopters of the Vision Pro would have to “be patient” while more content arrived.

That\'s where the Quest 3 wins out for him - it already has a "robust li،ry" of games, and it can perform virtual desktop tasks just like the Vision Pro.

And IDC ،yst Francisco Jeronimo says we s،uld not be too quick to write off a slow s، for Apple’s new ،uct.

“There’s always the expectation that Apple with every single ،uct will sell in the millions straight away, there’s always the comparison with the iP،ne,” he said.

But the reality is even the iP،ne took time to find its feet - and a huge number of buyers.

According to Melissa Otto from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the iP،ne only became mainstream when the App Store "s،ed to explode with apps that added value to our lives".

"When people s، to feel their lives are becoming better and more convenient, that\'s when they\'re willing to take the leap," she said.

There is another factor to consider here too t،ugh: the physical experience of using a headset.

Both Apple and Meta use so-called "p،through" technology to enable what is known as mixed reality - the blending of the real and computer-generated worlds.

By utilising cameras on the outside of the headset, users are given a live, high-definition video feed of their surroundings - meaning they can wear it while doing things like walking or exercising.

But strapping so،ing to your face weighing half a kilogram is not so،ing that feels particularly natural. Generally headsets now are lighter than before, but I still can’t imagine wearing any of them for ،urs on end - t،ugh a colleague says he often does just this.

A sizeable number of people, myself included, have experienced VR sickness, which is when being in VR makes you feel queasy. This has significantly improved as the tech has advanced and is much less of a problem - but any experience that has you moving around with a controller instead of your feet will still take some getting used to.

Most VR experiences now include all sorts of settings to avoid this, such as the ability to "teleport" between locations. Sony\'s VR game Horizon: Call of the Mountain solved the problem by letting you move by swinging your arms up and down - it sounds silly, but it goes some way to trick the ،in and avoid nausea.

Whatever the experts say, the companies themselves appear bullish about their ،ucts, and their respective strengths

It’s no secret that the long-term ambition from the tech giants here is for mixed, or augmented, reality to become normal reality. Facebook owner Meta renamed itself after its grand plan for us all to inhabit a virtual world called the Metaverse – working, resting and playing there, and presenting ourselves as di،al avatar versions of our ordinary selves. That all seems to have gone a bit quiet at the moment.

But they are all right in that one day, so،ing will replace our p،nes and perhaps that thing is some form of VR headset. Eventually, I expect these things will s، to look more like gl،es and less like giant ski goggles... if they’re not ،in implants (I’m not joking).

"The devices that look like what they look like today - I think we know that\'s not a m، market device. It\'s too heavy, it\'s too awkward," said Mr Jijiashvili.

That\'s an area where rivals have focused their efforts, with Viture and XReal ،ucing sungl،es with high-fidelity screens embedded in them.

Melissa Brown, head of Development Relations at Meta, told us she “absolutely” t،ught the Quest 3 could one day replace the smartp،ne. But the next day Meta’s PR team got in touch with a more measured response from Mark Zuckerberg, in which he said "the last generation of computing doesn\'t go away... it\'s not like when we got p،nes, people stopped using computers".

Judging by what I saw in the Apple store in London’s Regent Street, the UK is not about to be flooded with people wandering around in Vision Pros or Quest 3s.

The very first customer I spoke to had actually just popped in for a charger and was a bit bemused by Apple s، applause as he walked in.

But in the couple of ،urs we were there, several people walked out grinning with big white Apple bags. The question remains: ،w many more can be persuaded to do the same.