Whether it’s Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, or Tesla CEO Elon Musk, both have expressed their negative views on Apple’s newly released Vision Pro. From a professional standpoint, the criticisms of Vision Pro are valid. It violates many fundamental principles of product development, with the most apparent being the lack of a clear pain point.
In 2009, a United Airlines flight was delayed, and passengers were eagerly waiting to board the plane. An anxious passenger turned to an elderly gentleman seated next to him and asked, “Do you know when this flight will arrive at its destination?” The elderly man took out his iPhone and asked, “Siri, what time is United Flight 98 expected to arrive?” Siri provided the latest arrival time. The passenger was astonished and said, “I have only one question: Why are you sitting in coach? You ought to be a billionaire!”
That elderly gentleman was Norman Winarsky, known as the father of Siri. At that time, he was the president of Stanford International Consulting Institute, and the name Siri was derived from the institute’s name. His team was developing a virtual personal assistant, and he was one of the few chosen to test Siri. Later, we learned that Apple acquired Siri, making it an essential feature and key interaction mode of the iPhone 4S. Today, Siri supports dozens of languages, and a significant number of Apple smartphone users worldwide rely on Siri for queries and commands.
Those who believe Vision Pro is a great product often base their opinion on the fact that it incorporates many cool technologies. In its time, Siri was also considered a cool technology. You might say that with such amazing technology, one can surely establish a great company. However, Norman Winarsky believes that neither Siri nor any company in Silicon Valley or elsewhere follows such logic.
In fact, he believes that the first element of a successful product is to have a clear pain point with enormous growth potential. Winarsky’s perspective is correct. A new product must be a painkiller; this is a fundamental principle for professional product managers. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a strong pain point in Vision Pro.