Some More Thoughts on Apple's Ability to Make Vision Pro Content

Thinking about Ben Thompson’s article some more, I’m now wondering if Apple is incapable of producing the type of Vision Pro content that he’s hoping for. Not because they don’t have the money or talent, but because they do. You employ a video production team, given them a huge budget, and send them to work with the expectation that they produce a return on investment, of course they’re going to make overly produced immersive video. They’re going to feel like they need to.

This might be unfair, but from the outside looking in, Apple doesn’t strike me as the type of place for the rank and file to have much leeway in deciding the direction of a product. Direction comes form the top, and the executive team need to justify why Apple is spending so much money on video production. And the easiest way to do so would be to produce content that uses all those cameras, video switchers, editors, etc. that they have.¹ The thought of saying “we’re not going to use any of that, we’re just going to stand a camera up” could, in the mind of anyone listening, have them wonder “okay, so why are we setting aside millions of dollars for you again?” The executive team can probably just tell the video producers to use that single camera, but I’m sure they’ll get asked the same question from Apple’s investors.

Then again, maybe it’s more simply that this department has access to all this money and equipment, and they want to make use of it, or they’re more comfortable using it because “that’s how it’s always done.” Such it would be if you explicitly hire people with those skills for roles that require it.

In any case, I don’t think the type of content Ben is asking for will come from Apple. Creativity requires constraints, and Apple just doesn’t have those anymore.