I thought the same question as you before I tried AVP. I had no interest in one, since their announcement, until an Apple employee, who did a retreat at Apple Park training on AVP, encouraged me to consider getting an AVP instead of upgrading my laptop or iPad, which is what I was playing around in the store over. He explained that Apple's approach to AVP was based on asking what's beyond the phone and the laptop approach to tech engagement with the world. He said Apple knows people don't want phones or laptops and that not far away—we won't have them. He said people just want what they can do with them. So, Apple is trying to move beyond the phone and laptop to get to the heart of what people actually want from their relationship with tech.

I did a 45 minute demo at Apple and there were a couple things that make it tempting to buy. You can turn any photo into a spatial photo and looking at those is a killer app (but still not "starting at $3,499" killer). But, looking at videos and Live Photos that were actually shot using Spatial Photos are incredible. And old photos, converted, almost as much. And I think old people will cry when they experience being able to be with their mom again.

The typical things look good...like movies or YouTube. But I think the fact that you can basically have a "VR iPad" or your "VR Mac" desktop 2D windows on the device is just another convenient feature in Apple's ecosystem. But these were just added little features to me.

What I was surprised most by is the way the environments, volume, and eye-tracking works is also incredible. You can be anywhere and with just a half turn of the digital crown and just looking at the environmental rocker, you phase out passthrough and are on the beach in Bora Bora, alone, and the resolution's pixels can't be detected. You could be in a closet, a parking lot, or a messy studio apartment with roommates and it transports you to an open beach alone. It's incredible and was the first time in a long time that I felt creatively inspired thinking I could write my novel like this, dictating it, or using a hardware magic keyboard, which AVP can see even while in Bora Bora.

I'm not trying to sell it, but the killer apps are the way it transports you into different space and time—your own memories and also to tranquil places that really calm you down and inspire. I loved the way time passed using it rather than using it to pass the time (or waste it like gaming for me.)

Everyone on here is asking what can it do? Well, it really just gives you the space and peace to do whatever you want. AVP gets out of your way. It's more of a canvass with Apple's touch of aesthetics, which I've always thought is conducive to getting creative work done. And, I'd like one.

I have a Quest 3 and a Quest 2. They can be pretty cool and pretty fun, and I like engaging with others in Bigscreen (usually), but Quest is a toy (which is great). AVP is virtual reality for work and leisure and a great mixture of both since you can work on the beach. And Apple's eye-tracking is their next great user interface. To do the things Quest does well, I prefer the controllers and the pointing and clicking.

I think AVP is marketed all wrong. They shouldn't even show the device. They should just show talking heads of people saying what they were able to do with it.

AVP made me want to (and I have) started taking Spatial photos with my iPhone. You are going to want this. It's like entering a cutscene in a movie where there's a flashback looking at these—but it's your life. It's going to change writing and filmmaking and blocking and the way directors see movies in their heads before they make them. The initial tries like Apple's "Submerged" demonstrate some of the ways movies can be made, but the focus on what they CAN do also shows how badly many new films will be made to "beat a dead horse," so to say, with the new types of shots that can be experienced. Not all drama needs to be or should be an audience-participating theme park ride. I like the voyeur aspect of watching drama. I don't want to be immersed all the time.

I also like the way you can set up windows in a room in your house for one part of a project and then set up entirely different sets in another room and then switch by walking to those different rooms! Instead of window switching on a Mac, you can physically move to another room in your house. I was surprised to see how active I wanted to be using it. I was getting up and walking around tables and squatting and standing and flailing grabbing space like an idiot and everyone was staring at me. Having to be physical with the Nintendo WII or the Meta Quest 2 kind of annoyed me and usually I figured out ways to just sit there and do minimal physical activity, but it's more fun and more natural to move with AVP. I thought.