Apple fired on all cylinders throughout 2024 with big revamps to the iPad and Mac lineups, the iPhone 16, and the Apple Watch Series 10.
None of those products, however, have had and will continue to have the impact of Apple Vision Pro. For that reason, we are crowning the Apple Vision Pro as the 9to5Mac Product of the Year for 2024.
Chance Miller, 9to5Mac Editor-in-chief
Even though picking Apple Vision Pro as our Apple product of the year will be controversial, I’m certain we’ve made the right choice.
I’ve had very few if any, technological experiences as magical as interacting with Apple Vision Pro. Watching my first spatial video is a moment I’ll never forget. Watching my favorite movie (Back to the Future) immersed in the Cinema Environment was stunning. In fact, I’ve watched more movies this year than ever before, thanks to Apple Vision Pro.
Apple’s human interface design choices with Apple Vision Pro have already influenced its biggest competitor. Meta fired up its photocopiers right as Vision Pro launched to mimic Apple’s innovative spatial computing design paradigms. The company has also rolled out upgraded hand tracking and gestures, spatial video support, and more. The Apple Vision Pro’s influence is clear.
Then, of course, there’s Mac Virtual Display. This turns Apple Vision Pro into a truly versatile powerhouse computer. The initial version of Mac Virtual was impressive, but visionOS 2.2 took the experience to the next level with new wide and ultrawide options, improved visual fidelity, and proper audio routing.
Apple has work to do if it wants Apple Vision Pro (or whatever “Vision” product comes next) to truly become the future of computing. The good news is that I think Apple is taking the feedback in stride and will continue to perfect the spatial computing experience in years to come. We’ve also seen a notable uptick in the amount of Immersive Video and an increasingly impressive collection of third-party apps.
The clear honorable mentions for me are the M4 Mac mini and M4 iPad Pro. As impressive as those upgrades are, however, I don’t think they rival Apple Vision Pro. Nonetheless, I look forward to all the feedback from people telling me I’m wrong.
Zac Hall, Senior Summer Intern
Apple Vision Pro is undeniably the Apple product of the year. It didn’t exist as a product you could buy last year, and it won’t be novel next year. Every other Apple product is iterative this year. Apple Vision Pro is both technologically impressive and entirely new for Apple.
Sure, it’s astronomically priced, but it’s astronomically more impressive than all the affordable headsets out there. In short, AVP is a Mac and everything other headset is a Nintendo Wii. Yeah, affordable game consoles are better for entertaining games, but the Mac is a workhorse.
Apple Vision Pro is also a much better 1.0 product than the original iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Each aforementioned product was replaced within a few years with a version that made the original hardware look long in the tooth. Maybe that will happen with Apple Vision Pro, but my expectation is that the gen-one AVP will be seen as futuristic and ahead of its time by the end of 2025 and mid-2026.
This is not to say that Apple Vision Pro is the technology of the year. The combination of ChatGPT and Claude share that honor. But with the narrow focus of Apple’s contributions to technology, I’m certain 2024 will be marked as the year Apple Vision Pro became reality. What about Apple Intelligence? Apple’s suite of generative AI features needs a dedicated chatbot before it should be considered comparable to ChatGPT and Claude.
Honorable mentions: Project Titan getting canceled (RIP Apple Car), 16GB RAM upgrade for M2 and M3 MacBook Air, and the demise of FineWoven iPhone cases.
Ryan Christoffel, News Writer
There’s no doubt Apple’s other 2024 products have been more ‘successful’ by typical benchmarks. But the Vision Pro is anything but typical.
Vision Pro launched a new product that put a classic Apple twist on an existing category. It’s technically a VR headset, but functionally an AR and VR device. Apple calls it a spatial computer.
While it may take years to see if spatial computing takes off, Vision Pro is undeniably a bold, innovative take on the future of computing.
Vision Pro deserves Product of the Year because it offers something radically unique among Apple’s 2024 lineup.
My most-used device of the year, the M4 iPad Pro, packs some impressive upgrades—but it’s still basically an iPad. The iPhone 16 Pro and M4 Mac mini are similarly strong products, but nothing altogether new.
These days, every new Apple product is expected to be a hit. Vision Pro certainly isn’t that yet. But Tim Cook’s grown accustomed to calling it an “early adopter product,” and I think that rings true.
I can’t wait to see where Apple takes the Vision Pro next.
Jeff Benjamin, Head of Video Content Production
There are a few unforgettable first tech experiences in my life: the first time I jumped over a Goomba while holding an NES controller, the first time I clicked the mouse on an original Macintosh, the first time I swiped on an iPhone’s 3.5-inch display, and yes, the first time I mashed the accelerator in a Tesla. These moments are rare, but when you’re in the midst of one, you just know.
The Apple Vision Pro gave me that feeling again—a feeling I’ve only experienced a handful of times in my lifetime.
To be honest, I was all set on crowning the M4 Mac mini because it offers unparalleled value and arguably the best bang for your buck in Apple’s history. However, the Apple Vision Pro deserves recognition because it genuinely feels like someone from the future dropped this headset in my lap. It’s not just a new product with a fancy exterior; it’s an entirely new device with groundbreaking UX and UI paradigms that still leave me in awe, almost a year after its release.
The Apple Vision Pro is hands down the best TV and movie-watching experience I’ve ever had. It surpasses any movie theater on the planet. It’s an isolating, single-user device, but I’d argue that smartphones themselves can be equally isolating, perhaps not physically, but mentally—perhaps even more so because they afford a false sense of presence when your mind may actually be a thousand miles away.
With the Apple Vision Pro, there’s no pretending. You’re transported to a completely different realm, sometimes even a completely different world – hey, I like to use visionOS 2’s Mac Virtual Display Ultrawide screen to edit videos in Final Cut Pro from the surface of the moon – don’t judge me.
It’s not perfect, but few first-generation devices are. Apple has laid an incredible foundation with Vision Pro and visionOS, and I’m incredibly excited to see where this journey takes us.
Filipe Esposito, Editor
The Vision Pro hasn’t quite lived up to Apple’s expectations of success. Yet, even if you don’t own one or plan to buy one, you’ve likely heard a lot about it. While the first iteration of the Apple Vision Pro may one day fade from our memories, I’m sure the Vision platform will eventually evolve into more compact headsets and perhaps even sleek glasses.
Although only a few hundred thousand people worldwide currently have access to the headset, the Apple Vision Pro has already made waves in the AR/VR industry. And I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Fernando Silva, Video Producer
The Apple Vision Pro has earned its place as Apple’s Product of the Year for one simple reason: it’s the first product since the original iPhone that has left me completely in awe. From the moment I experienced it, the entire device felt like pure magic. The way you can seamlessly manipulate UI elements with nothing but your eyes is nothing short of revolutionary, and the precision with which it detects finger taps, no matter where your hands are, feels like it should not be possible. It’s like stepping into the Iron Man helmet, where technology feels both futuristic and intuitively human at the same time.
The Mac Mini and the M4 iPad Pro were also strong contenders for this title. Both devices are incredibly impressive, showcasing Apple’s continued commitment to innovation and performance. However, even though I was thoroughly impressed by these products, the Vision Pro was the device that truly made my jaw drop.
What really makes the Vision Pro deserving of this title is its versatility. Whether you’re diving into productivity tasks, perfectly synced with your Apple ecosystem, or immersing yourself in content while traveling, it excels at both with effortless grace. As a content consumption machine, it’s unparalleled, bringing cinema-like experiences directly to your face wherever you are. It’s not just a gadget; it’s a glimpse into the future of computing and entertainment, redefining what’s possible. That’s why, for me, it’s not just the best Apple product this year, it symbolizes a future that I want to be a part of.
Ben Lovejoy, European Editor
Vision Pro is of course a very controversial pick, with the redesigned M4 Mac mini a more obvious choice. Apple’s spatial computer is an expensive niche product with relatively few native apps, and I’m one of many Apple fans who enjoyed trying it but wasn’t remotely tempted to buy one.
Even those who did lay out the cash mostly ended up using it for immersive movie viewing, which could be far more comfortably and affordably achieved with a $440 face monitor.
But what’s important about Vision Pro is not what it is today, but the direction it sets for Apple. This is the iPhone maker taking its first small step toward an eventual Apple Glasses product. That, when it finally arrives, will be not Apple product of the year, but probably of the decade. The iPhone maker reportedly even believes that it could eventually replace the iPhone.
I’m not so sure about that, but I do believe that the advent of Apple Intelligence makes it at least a significantly more plausible prospect. Maybe I’ll pick up my Apple Glasses when I want to quickly use an app in much the same way I pick up my Viture glasses when I want to watch YouTube.
Either way, I’m really excited about the future of this form factor, and fully expect Apple to do it better than anyone else. We can’t get there without Apple beginning that journey now, so for that reason Vision Pro earns its title despite its undeniable niche status today.
Michael Bower, Graphics Editor
Some people have claimed that Apple Vision Pro is the “future of computing.” I don’t know about that. But what I do know is that I’d love to see it become available in the Apple Store for Veterans and Military in the foreseeable future, ideally within my lifetime.
Benjamin Mayo, European Contributor
While some have deemed it as a dead-end, I think the Vision Pro is setting a course for Apple’s future. People expecting Vision Pro to make an impact on culture in its first year had misguided expectations.
At an eye-watering $3,500 price point and riddled with various compromises like weight and battery life, the ideal hardware is still being crafted but this first-generation device sets the vision for a new product line that will become successful sooner rather than later. It only needs a couple of hardware iterations to come into its own, and you have the long-term goal for augmented reality glasses simmering beyond that as well.
With the Vision Pro, Apple set out to build “a tool, not a toy” (to quote Apple VP Mike Rockwell), and it got surprisingly far along to that goal in its first outing. We’ve already seen competitors change their software significantly to ape what Apple nailed out the gate in terms of productivity and window management in augmented reality.
Michael Burkhardt, Weekend Editor
Apple Vision Pro is a clear choice for product of the year. The hardware itself may not be the ultimate expression of what spatial computing can be – but the software certainly is. visionOS has had a profound impact on the rest of the mixed reality industry, and almost certainly caused Meta to rethink things. Apple’s software design was incredibly thoughtful and features like Mac Virtual Display (which got even better this year thanks to Wide and Ultra Wide support!) are just the cherry on top.
I’m excited for the future of this product category. It needs to get smaller, lighter, and certainly cheaper before any sort of mass adoption, but Apple laid an extremely solid foundation with visionOS. In the meantime, you can start taking spatial photos and videos with your iPhone 15 Pro (or later) to enjoy in future Vision headsets.
There’s simply nothing else like Vision Pro on the market, and that’s why it takes the crown for product of the year. Many would suggest Mac mini instead, but it’s more of a great value than an ultimate product. If the redesign happened separately from the upgrade to 16GB of RAM, there wouldn’t be as much hype here. Vision Pro was the first truly new Apple product since the HomePod in 2018 — and Apple did a remarkable job here.
See also:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments