[11] It also became available for purchase in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore on June 28, 2024, in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK on July 12, 2024, and in South Korea and the UAE on November 15, 2024.

Rockwell formed a team called the Technology Development Group including Metaio co-founder Peter Meier and Apple Watch manager Fletcher Rothkopf.

[23] Senior engineering manager Geoff Stahl, who reports to Rockwell, led the development of its visionOS operating system,[21][24] after previously working on games and graphics technology at Apple.

[28][29] The Vrvana Totem was able to overlay fully opaque, true-color animations on top of the real world rather than the ghost-like projections of other AR headsets, which cannot display the color black.

[30] Vrvana's innovations, including IR illuminators and infrared cameras for spatial and hand tracking, were integral to the development of the headset.

[31] According to leaker Wayne Ma, Apple was originally going to allow macOS software to be dragged from the display to the user's environment, but was scrapped early on due to the limitations of being based on iPadOS and noted that the hand-tracking system was not precise enough for games.

Workers also discussed collaborations with brands such as Nike for working out with the headset, and others investigated face cushions that were better suited for sweaty, high-intensity workouts, but was scrapped due to the battery pack and the fragile screen.

[2][37] On June 6, the day after the announcement, Apple acquired the AR headset startup Mira, whose technology is used at Super Nintendo World's Mario Kart ride.

[45] It has a curved laminated glass display on the front, an aluminum frame on its sides, a flexible cushion on the inside, and a removable, adjustable headband.

[45] Custom optical inserts are supported for users with prescription glasses, which will attach magnetically to the main lens and are developed in partnership with Zeiss.

[46][16][45] Two cooling fans about 4 cm (1.6 in) in diameter are placed near the eye positions to help with heat dissipation due to high-speed processing of data.

When someone else approaches or speaks, even if the user is fully immersed, EyeSight shows their persona's virtual eyes normally and makes the other person visible.

[66] Analysts suggested that this may have resulted from the companies' strained relationships with Apple over App Store policies such as mandatory 30% revenue sharing, including associated antitrust allegations.

Axon said that its displays were dim but "much better than other headsets I've used on this front, even if it still wasn't perfect", and that the personas looked "surreal" but conveyed body language better than a more stylized avatar (such as Animoji or Horizon Worlds).

[71][72][73] Following its release, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated he had demoed the headset and liked its display resolution and eye tracking, but still believed the Quest 3 was the "better product" due to its lower price and Apple's "closed" ecosystem.

[74] Jay Peters of The Verge similarly noted that Apple did not present Apple Vision Pro as a VR platform or refer to the device as a headset, and described it as an AR device and "spatial computer", and only demonstrated non-VR games displayed in windows and controlled using an external gamepad, rather than fully immersive experiences such as games and social platforms (including motion controllers).

He suggested that this positioning "leaves wiggle room for the likely future of this technology that looks nothing like a bulky VR headset: AR glasses".

[81] Apple Vision Pro also faced criticism over its short battery life,[82] appearing distracting to others,[82] and its lack of HDMI input[83][84] and haptic feedback.

However, he felt that there was "so much technology in this thing that feels like magic when it works and frustrates you completely when it doesn't", citing examples such as the passthrough cameras (which "cannot overcome the inherent nature of cameras and displays"), eye and hand tracking that was "inconsistent" and "frustrating" to use (with parts of the visionOS interface demanding precision that couldn't be met by the eye-tracking system), visionOS lacking a window management tool similar to Expose or Stage Manager, and that the personas and EyeSight features were uncanny (with the latter's visibility hampered by a dim, low-resolution display covered by reflective glass).

"[85] Joanna Stern of The Wall Street Journal echoed this sentiment, arguing that it was "the best mixed-reality headset I've ever tried", and "so much of what the Vision Pro can do feels sci-fi", but that "these companies know these aren't really the devices we want.

[89] Its use has also been documented as a potential tool in the operating room, additional use cases include education, productivity, sales, collaboration and digital twins.