Let’s face reality: VR is dead. At least for now.

I’ve spent more time this year thinking about virtual reality than actually using it. That should tell you everything you need to know about VR’s state of play in 2025.

Despite billions in investment from Meta, Apple, Sony and Samsung, despite increasingly impressive technical specifications, and despite a decade of promises that “this year will be different” – VR headsets remain expensive, uncomfortable curiosities gathering dust on shelves.

Apple’s Vision Pro is the company’s first major new product category since the Apple Watch.Credit: Getty

The technology works. The problem is, nobody wants to use it.

The $6000 paperweight

Consider Apple’s Vision Pro, the company’s first major new product category since the Apple Watch. When it launched in Australia last year at an eye-watering $5999, it represented Apple’s most advanced piece of consumer technology ever created. The new M5-powered version is genuinely impressive kit: sharper displays running at 120Hz, sophisticated eye tracking, seamless Mac integration, and build quality that makes every other headset feel like a toy. I tried a friend’s model – he loves it – and I wanted to love it, too.

Unfortunately, as is too often the case with items that come across our desk covering the tech beat, it feels like a solution in search of a problem.

Apple’s Vision Pro.Credit: Daniel Boud

The Vision Pro’s fundamental problem isn’t technical, it’s existential. Even when everything works perfectly, even when the pass-through video makes you forget you’re wearing a headset, even when you’ve got multiple virtual displays floating around your office, there’s a persistent question nagging at you: “Why am I doing this instead of just using my laptop?”

Apple hasn’t got a good answer to that question, at least not yet. Neither has Meta with its considerably cheaper Quest 3S, nor Sony with its PSVR 2. They’ve all built impressive hardware in search of a reason to exist.

The missing killer app

Every transformative technology needs its killer app. Think a use case so compelling it justifies the hardware’s existence. The smartphone had instant messaging and mobile internet. The personal computer had spreadsheets and word processing. The television had, well, television.

VR has … Beat Saber?

VR has... Beat Saber? Don’t get me wrong. Slashing virtual blocks with lightsabers to thumping electronic music is fun! For about 20 minutes.

Don’t get me wrong. Slashing virtual blocks with light........

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