Will Apple Vision Pro Revolutionize Banking?

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Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., next to a mixed reality (XR) Apple Vision Pro… [+] headphones during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, U.S. on Monday, June 5, 2023. Apple Inc. to charge $3,499 for its much-anticipated mixed reality headset, testing whether consumers are ready to spend big dollars on a technology the company sees as the future of computing. Photographer: Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg

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When Apple speaks, people listen and pundits pontificate.

The experts came out in force after Apple announced the Vision Pro, a mixed reality headset. Apple describes the Vision Pro as a space computer that seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world. According to its website, with Vision Pro:

You have an infinite canvas that transforms how you use the apps you love. Arrange apps anywhere and scale them to the perfect size, making your dream workspace a reality, all while remaining present to the world around you.

All right. I can do it already with my MacBook, Tim.

Scott Galloway, the New York University professor and popular blogger and podcaster, is clearly pessimistic about the prospects for Apple’s new product:

I believe the Vision Pro will be remembered as a Neanderthal, a heavy, thick-browed dead-end evolutionary experimental species doomed to extinction.

On the other side of the coin, Michael McGrath, writing in Seeking Alpha, called Vision Pro a revolutionary spatial computing platform that has the potential to revolutionize various industries, from entertainment to remote work and wrote:

It seems that almost everyone is missing the true strategic importance of Apple Vision Pro. It’s not a VR/AR headset, it’s the computing platform of the future.

McGrath believes everyone will (eventually) want a Vision Pro to:

Watch movies on a big 3D screen. McGrath says the Vision Pro will cannibalize the big screen TV market because everyone who enjoys watching movies and videos will want a Vision Pro instead of a bigger TV. Well, except those of us who like to watch movies and videos with other people. Video conferencing. According to McGrath, you can replace video conferencing with a life-size experience as if people were in the room. Great, so the people I video conference with will actually be able to see that I look like crap. People who don’t like to join the camera during Zoom calls will now dislike full-size Vision Pro video conferencing. Travel around the world. McGrath writes that with a Vision Pro you can experience traveling anywhere with all viewfinders full-size and in 3-D. Anyone who wants to travel more but doesn’t have the money or the time will buy a Vision Pro. Doubtful. A seven-night Caribbean cruise costs between $424 and $1,158 per person. At the low end of that range, I can take eight cruises for the price of a Vision Pro. Will the Vision Pro impact the banking sector?

Experts speculated what Vision Pro could do in the banking sector as well. Federico De Simoni, Chief Commercial Officer of fintech Reworth, wrote that the device could:

Enable bankers to create more personalized and engaging experiences for their customers. For example, bankers could use the device to present customized investment opportunities or financial plans in an interactive three-dimensional format.

I guess they could, but today they do to some extent minus the immersive 3D part and it hasn’t had any impact. So why would it work in an immersive 3D environment? Is this the missing ingredient? I do not believe.

De Simoni also imagines that a customer can use Vision Pro to have a virtual meeting with his banker, making the interaction more convenient and efficient.

Today we have this ability. It’s called FaceTime, and its banking customer service has hardly been revolutionized.

De Simoni explains that Vision Pro’s 3D camera could capture and present data in a more engaging and understandable way. Maybe, but that’s not why today’s face-to-face meeting doesn’t have a greater impact.

Vision Pro will not revolutionize banking just yet

Galloways’ (typically spot on) analysis of the Vision Pro removal reveals an interesting point: that Apple may not care if the product sells well as long as the product forces Meta into a corner:

Zuckerberg is spending a small country’s GDP to invent the metaverse where Apple doesn’t own the roads or the power plants. Vision Pro is insurance against the evolution of the metaverse into more than an incel panic room.

In the short term that may be the case, but Apple’s modus operandi tends to look beyond and patiently build growth.

Yes, the iPhone took off like wildfire, but not Apple Pay. It took years for that service to gain traction, and recently, with wider adoption, the company launched Apple Cash, Apple Card, and Apple Pay Later. Undoubtedly many other tricks up the sleeve related to the banking sector.

The history of technology adoption over the past 25 years provides insight into how and when Vision Pro will impact the banking industry: after it has impacted other industries.

The online channel impacted the retail, entertainment and communications industry long before it impacted banking, and it was a similar story with the mobile channel (and device).

Augmented and/or virtual reality devices won’t make their mark in banking sooner than other industries for two big reasons:

The form factor has major limitations. There’s a reason Apple limited reviewers of the Vision Pro to just 30 minutes with the device: It would have made them dizzy and given them headaches if they’d kept it on any longer. After spending time with a VR headset shopping and entertaining, are we going to extend that time to the bank? Not with the product as it is. Banking is not that important to people. The great paradox in financial services is that money is so very important to us, yet we still choose to spend more time deciding which movies to see, which restaurants to eat at, and which video games to play rather than managing our money.

The potential use cases people are proposing for Vision Pro in banking are simply not very compelling. They don’t solve the real problems people have with managing money, and the device doesn’t add any degree of convenience, which is a big driver of technology adoption in banking.

After Vision Pro revolutionized retail, travel and entertainment and after Apple released Vision Pro contact lenses, then let’s talk about Vision Pro revolutionizing banking.

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