Four reasons for the less-than-expected developer enthusiasm for Apple's Vision Pro, including an uncertain ROI and anger at Apple for its App Store policies
Apple's new Vision Pro will lack some key apps when it debuts, renewing concerns about an already-tense relationship with certain developers.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had positioned iPadOS and iOS compatibility as a way to seed Vision Pro’s catalog, even as questions remained about whether its App Store could avoid the thinner ecosystems seen on other Apple platforms. The launch app gap makes that compatibility-first approach to building the catalog more consequential.
Later coverage found that new Vision Pro app creation had slowed after the first two months while Apple continued seeking a breakout use case, reinforcing that the developer issue is not just launch-day availability but sustained platform economics. See the subsequent slowdown in new Vision Pro apps.
First-order effects
- Vision Pro buyers face a thinner selection of key apps at launch, reducing the device’s immediate software appeal.
- Developers already skeptical of the return on a Vision Pro app have less incentive to prioritize native work, while App Store policy friction further weakens Apple’s ability to recruit holdouts.
Second-order effects
- Apple must rely more heavily on compatible iPadOS and iOS apps to fill catalog gaps, making native Vision Pro differentiation harder to establish.
- The absence of key apps can feed back into developers’ ROI calculations: a less compelling software lineup limits the audience that would justify additional investment.
Third-order effects
- If developer relations and platform economics remain unresolved, Vision Pro risks a self-reinforcing marketplace problem in which limited software demand and limited developer investment constrain each other.
- The episode underscores how new hardware platforms depend not only on technical access but also on developers’ confidence in store rules, monetization, and reachable demand.
The trend: Spatial-computing platforms are increasingly being judged by whether their app-store economics can convert early developer interest into durable native software supply.