Apple announced a slew of new features for visionOS during its WWDC 2025 keynote on Monday. High on the list of headline features is, to my surprise, better support for enterprise customers.
Compared to other computing platform owners like Microsoft, Apple historically cared less about supporting enterprise customers. In many companies, people making technology purchase decisions (i.e., IT managers) are not the people who are most directly affected by the experiences of using these products. Above almost all else, Apple cares about making “insanely great” consumer products, and prioritising what enterprise IT managers want can sometimes get in the way of providing good consumer experiences. If Apple’s consumer products are useful and popular, people will want to use them at work, and sometimes Apple will then find ways to help enterprise IT managers make it work.
For all of its products, Apple cares about delivering great consumer experiences first, before it focuses on supporting enterprise customers.
Apple Vision Pro and visionOS were announced almost exactly 2 years ago at WWDC 2023, and started shipping only 16 months ago. By all indications, its sales so far have been disappointing. For such a young product, it feels unusual, and somewhat worrying, that Apple chose to dedicate the precious number two spot on its four-point list for visionOS 26 to enterprise support at WWDC 2025.
I was impressed with the experiences that Vision Pro made possible. (If you haven’t tried it yet, book a one-to-one in-person demo at an Apple Store. You won’t be disappointed.) And I believe with a lower price, Vision Pro (or its rumoured lower-end successor) can be a compelling consumer product. I want Vision Pro to succeed as a consumer product because I want one someday, but Apple’s decision to highlight enterprise features so prominently, so early in its product lifecycle, suggests a lack of confidence in Vision Pro’s future as a consumer product. It would be a shame for it to go the way of Google Glass.
Another, perhaps less jarring sign of Apple’s lack of confidence in Vision Pro came a few minutes later in the visionOS accessories segment of the keynote, when Mike Rockwell introduced a pen that works with Vision Pro for drawing in a 3D space. It’s easy to see a parallel to Apple Pencil, which delivers one of the most unique and quintessential iPad experiences that no other compatible stylus can match. But unlike Apple Pencils, this brand-new, state-of-the-art input device for Vision Pro is made by Logitech. I’m certain Apple knows how to make a great “Spatial Pencil”, and I bet they even have a few prototypes in their labs. But Apple chose not to make one that delivers the best spatial drawing experience for Vision Pro, perhaps because it’s not convinced of Vision Pro’s chances.
Besides these worrying signs for VisionOS and Vision Pro, I’m mostly excited by the new Liquid Glass design, enhanced Spotlight capabilities in macOS, and the new multitasking and windowing system in iPadOS. I have been using the latest developer beta on my aging A12 iPad Air, and have mixed feelings about the new design and multitasking features. There are plenty of quick takes, hate, and ridicule for the redesign out there, but I think we all need to live with it for a while and give Apple time to refine it before drawing a conclusion.
It’s going to be a fun summer, that’s for sure.
An Inconvenient Thought 