Apple Vision Pro: Startup Platform Of The Future?

Diana describes building Atheer Reality, an augmented reality SDK that let developers create experiences for multiple platforms. The startup joined YC and was later acquired by Niantic, where Diana led AR platform work used in games including Pokémon Go.

Diana contrasts optical AR, which overlays digital content on a direct view of the real world, with Vision Pro’s video pass-through approach. She says pass-through avoids some difficult optical problems, while eye tracking helps render greater detail where the user is looking and manage the device’s power and heat.

Vision Pro combines Apple’s M2 and custom R1 processors with more than 10 cameras, LiDAR, and eye-tracking cameras to process its view of the world. Diana connects this work to robotics techniques such as SLAM, which self-driving cars also use to locate themselves. She sees eye tracking and spatial design as new interface tools, while noting that developers are still discovering useful interactions.

The hosts compare Vision Pro’s prospects with the iPhone’s early days. Diana says mobile companies such as Instacart and DoorDash emerged years after the iPhone launched, as adoption and app platforms matured. She warns that an expensive headset could remain a niche product unless it eventually reaches a broader market and attracts an app ecosystem.

The discussion considers high-value professional uses, such as helping traders explore many screens of information, while noting that many spatial apps remain flat 2D. Diana says YC evaluates applications on their own merits and looks for founders with strong, sustained interest in the field. She advises against building for a new platform just because it is fashionable.