As Apple prepares to introduce the Apple Vision Pro to the public, developers are coming to terms with some interesting decisions that will enhance Apple’s ecosystem.
While XCode 15.2 runs on Intel-powered Macs, the additional SDK needed to develop for the Apple Vision Pro requires developers to run macOS on Apple Silicon.
This should not come as a huge surprise. Apple no longer sells any new Intel-based Mac machines, and Apple Silicon debuted in late 2020. Developers are likely to be frequent updators of their hardware; Apple had signalled long before that late 2020 date that ARM-based Apple Silicon was coming, and many held off waiting for the new technology.
Much of that new technology is shared across the Apple platform and the various hardware strands that make it up—you have Apple Silicon driving the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, the various Macs, and now the Vision Pro. Putting aside the form factors, you have common hardware at the silicon level, common software, standard programming interfaces and tools….
It’s only natural that Apple Silicon is the only choice for developers working on Apple Vision Pro. And if that helps sell some more Macs in a year where sales are not expected to skyrocket, that’s just how the Apple ecosystem works out.
When there’s only one game in town, you’ll need to play in that garden.
That garden has another powerful element; Apple can reset the conversation by smartly applying its style guide. Developers must use the term spatial computing instead of the more recognisable AR, VR, and Augmented Reality taglines that the public is more familiar with. Given that every third-party app will need to be given explicit permission by Apple’s App Store team, there will be a cleanly engineered breakaway from existing VR and AR headsets and the associated issues bundled within those names.
The Apple Vision Pro is expected to go on sale in a limited number of territories on February 2nd.
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