UPDATE
April 9, 2024
Apple Vision Pro brings a new era of spatial computing to business
Incredible new enterprise experiences leverage spatial computing to customize workspaces, collaborate on 3D designs, deliver specialized employee training, and guide remote fieldwork in entirely new ways
Apple Vision Pro enables enterprises to build experiences that weren’t possible before, like KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ Engine Shop app, which dramatically improves technical maintenance with spatial computing.
For decades, Apple has worked to provide innovative products and services for businesses. Today, Apple products are used by all of the Fortune 500 companies in every industry around the world — iPhone and iPad are indispensable for businesses of all sizes, and Mac is preferred by employees when given the choice at work. Apple’s unique combination of hardware, software, services, and built-in support for IT makes it incredibly easy to manage and secure devices at scale. With the introduction of Apple Vision Pro, spatial computing enables enterprises to build experiences that previously were not possible.
“There’s tremendous opportunity for businesses to reimagine what’s possible using Apple Vision Pro at work,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterprise Marketing. “We’re thrilled to see the innovative ways organizations are already using Apple Vision Pro, from planning fire response operations to iterating on the most intricate details of an engine design — and this is just the beginning. Combined with enterprise-grade capabilities like mobile device management built into visionOS, we believe spatial computing has the potential to revolutionize industries around the world.”
With visionOS built on the foundation of decades of engineering innovation in macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, enterprise developers can create powerful spatial experiences controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice. The breakthrough design of Apple Vision Pro features an ultra-high-resolution display system and custom Apple silicon in a unique dual-chip design to deliver experiences in real time. Vision Pro uses a wide range of advanced machine learning and AI models to enable foundational capabilities such as hand tracking, room mapping, Personas, and more. All of this is accelerated by the Neural Engine in the M2 chip, which ensures spatial computing is the most powerful way for a business to leverage AI.
Developers have been building apps for Apple Vision Pro across numerous enterprise categories, from business productivity and product design, to immersive training and guided work.
Customized Workspaces for Productivity
Spatial computing blends digital content with the physical world, providing an infinite canvas that enables businesses to reinvent workspaces and enhance everyday productivity. With visionOS, apps are freed from the boundaries of a display, so they can appear side by side at any scale. With support for Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, users can set up the perfect workspace and bring the powerful capabilities of their Mac into Apple Vision Pro wirelessly, creating an enormous, private, and portable 4K display with incredibly crisp text. The most-loved productivity apps for business are now available on Vision Pro.
SAP Analytics Cloud helps streamline the process of gathering, integrating, analyzing, and presenting data-driven insights to enhance business decision-making. On Apple Vision Pro, the app enables employees and executives to immediately access their data dashboard and arrange their most critical business workflows, apps, and cards beautifully in their space. They can also drill down into the data with contextual 3D maps and graphics to gain new insights. With the latest SDK release for developers, the SAP Business Technology Platform fully supports Apple Vision Pro. Customers and partners can now deploy their SAP apps to Vision Pro, alongside iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
“Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary device, and we are thrilled to leverage the capabilities of spatial computing with SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Mobile Start,” said Philipp Herzig, chief AI officer, SAP SE. “Going forward, we see the power of visionOS combined with generative AI being a force multiplier for enterprises. SAP Analytics Cloud running on Apple Vision Pro will help our customers discover all-new insights from complex data with powerful and intuitive processes that supercharge their business planning. And with SAP Mobile Start, we provide access to all of SAP’s business applications and workflows in unimaginable ways.”
SAP Analytics Cloud on Apple Vision Pro lets users arrange their most critical business workflows and apps in their physical space while using contextual 3D maps and graphics to gain new insights.
Microsoft 365 productivity apps and AI companion Copilot built for Apple Vision Pro can help users get more done in powerful new ways. Focus mode in Word allows users to write without distraction; graph, manipulate, and visualize data in sharp, crisp detail in Excel; and immerse themselves in a slideshow with PowerPoint. Switching between meetings, chats, and shared content is easy in Teams — along with accessing the assistance of Copilot — with life-size windows that can be arranged in the user’s space.
“Spatial computing has enabled us to rethink how professionals can be productive and work intelligently with the power of AI,” said Nicole Herskowitz, vice president, Microsoft 365 and Teams. “With Microsoft 365 and Teams on Apple Vision Pro, your office moves with you, allowing users to view apps side by side on an infinite canvas with spatial computing for incredible multitasking and collaboration.”
Additional apps in business productivity include:
- Webex by Cisco brings an immersive and intuitive meeting experience that fills the space and utilizes Personas and Spatial Audio for a more natural video conferencing experience.
- Zoom provides an experience built for Apple Vision Pro with exceptional audio and video quality, giving users the ability to easily collaborate and schedule meetings.
- Box makes it easy for users to collaborate and securely manage files and content, including 3D objects, allowing them to intuitively bring this content into the world around them.
Design and Collaboration
The display system on Apple Vision Pro packs 23 million pixels across two displays — or more than 4K resolution for each eye — which makes videos, images, and documents crystal clear from any angle. With crisp visualization of 3D content, spatial computing opens up opportunities for product design, retail planning, and construction modeling, and enables new experiences for customers to engage with products and services.
The Porsche Race Engineer app provides an entirely new way for the Porsche team to collaborate. Race engineers are constantly making real-time decisions about everything from the performance of the car to the driver’s vitals. Apple Vision Pro helps engineers visualize car data in real time, bringing critical metrics like speed and braking alongside track conditions and car positioning, combined with live video from the car’s dashboard. In February, Porsche broke the U.S. record for electric vehicles at Laguna Seca with the new Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, while the engineers tracked along using Vision Pro. This can also expand track experiences for fans around the world.
“At Porsche, we’ve always been driven by dreams, and Apple Vision Pro has enabled us to reimagine track experiences,” said Oliver Blume, Porsche’s CEO. “The new Porsche Taycan Turbo GT is the ultimate all-electric performance car, and, fittingly, we were thrilled to bring the best of German engineering and Apple’s inspiring product innovation together with the Race Engineer app. This is the perfect example of our team delivering on our goal to bring the best user experience to our employees and customers.”
Apple Vision Pro provides an entirely new way for Porsche engineers to collaborate remotely with real-time data, bringing critical metrics like speed and braking alongside track conditions and a live video from the car’s dashboard.
Design and manufacturing processes are complex and involve large amounts of data from various sources. NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud APIs let developers stream massive 3D engineering and simulation data sets from the cloud to Apple Vision Pro. The high-resolution displays and powerful sensors built into Vision Pro enable developers and designers to create detailed, immersive renderings and visuals that can be viewed and manipulated in real time.
“The world’s industries are racing to build digital twins of products, facilities, and processes to better test and optimize designs well before constructing them in the physical world,” said Rev Lebaredian, NVIDIA’s vice president of Omniverse and Simulation Technology. “Enterprises can now combine the power and capabilities of Apple Vision Pro and the physically accurate renderings of OpenUSD content with NVIDIA accelerated computing to power the next generation of immersive digital experiences.”
Additional apps in design and collaboration include:
- Lowe’s Style Studio leverages the unique capabilities of spatial computing to help customers visualize and design their dream kitchen, making home improvement easier than ever.
- JigSpace brings intuitive, hands-on inspection and effortless collaboration to help users communicate complex ideas, products, and processes with spatial context.
- EnBW (Energie Baden-Württemberg AG) enables visualization of renewable energy infrastructure projects, allowing collaborators to see and assess designs of vehicle charging stations, wind turbines, and solar farms.
Training and Simulation
From preparing technicians to install equipment, to teaching complex tasks requiring hundreds of hours of hands-on work, making training procedures more interactive and impactful is critical to employee success. When it comes to aircraft maintenance, taking a plane offline for training can be costly and cause delays throughout the system. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will dramatically improve technical maintenance and airline operations with spatial computing on Apple Vision Pro. The Engine Shop app enables technicians to train on the latest engine models in full fidelity in their own space. With this app, a technician can instantly see the entire task they need to perform step by step, with detailed repair instructions overlayed on a 3D model of the exact engine. This reduces errors and increases employee job satisfaction while saving valuable time and ultimately speeding up plane turnaround times.
“We see Apple Vision Pro as a tremendous value-add that will improve our fleet availability and operations,” said Bob Tulleken, KLM’s vice president of Operations Decision Support. “Training our employees with spatial computing will lead to fewer costly errors because the most current information they need to do their job is there in front of them as they perform the task. This means we not only get vastly more efficient in our work, but also provide a better work environment for our employees to succeed.”
Additional apps in training and simulation include:
- Taqtile Manifest makes digital work instructions actionable with a simple glance or hand gesture.
- PTC’s Onshape Vision app transforms the way product designers and engineers view, interact with, and collaborate on complex 3D models.
Guided Work
Guided work requires the context of a person’s surroundings, such as a utility service technician who needs access to work orders or schematics. Resolve has reimagined how building engineers can plan for and access information they need to make decisions about systems behind walls, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and fire sprinkler lines. Rather than use static paper plans, users can review high-detail plans and 3D models on Apple Vision Pro, enabling architects, builders, and maintenance workers to see, fix, and comment, enhancing the entire life cycle of a construction project.
Resolve has reimagined how building engineers can access information they need to make decisions about systems behind walls.
In emergency response scenarios, incident management software combines real-time and historical information with geospatial data to help first responders manage their people and fleet resources. The FireOps app, developed by About Objects and DigitalCM, marks a turning point in emergency response management. FireOps leverages the infinite canvas with visionOS to provide a unified operational view of incident action plans, dramatically streamlining over a dozen procedures. This enhances coordination and decision-making among all participants, and ensures that first responders are more connected, informed, and prepared than ever before.
Additional apps in guided work include:
- TeamViewer Spatial Support enables remote experts and service technicians on the ground to troubleshoot repair and maintenance processes with unparalleled fidelity, enabling faster response and reduced downtime.
- BILT supports 3D interactive instructions with voice, text, and animated guidance for thousands of products to enable a wide range of workflows.
Apple offers developers a variety of resources, including powerful APIs, rich documentation, global developer labs, Develop in Swift Tutorials, and the visionOS simulator to help companies bring game-changing Apple Vision Pro experiences to life. To further support developers, today Apple is announcing the Enterprise Spatial Design Lab, providing hands-on support from Apple to help enterprises bring apps from concept to reality. The immersive sessions will be available beginning this summer at developer.apple.com. In addition, Deloitte announced today it is expanding its Apple practice to include a new Academy for Apple Vision Pro. The practice includes more than 100 practitioners trained to deliver visionOS solutions to clients, with a series of one-week, instructor-led courses to help engineers, product managers, and business leaders prepare for the new era of spatial computing.
Share article
Media
-
Text of this article
-
Images in this article