Apple Releases Vision Pro Headset, First Major New Product in a Decade
Announcement at Worldwide Developers Conference is first to introduce users to ‘spatial computing,’ CEO Tim Cook says
4 min
Apple unveiled the Vision Pro headset, the company’s first major new product in a decade, a device capable of allowing users to experience virtual reality and digital apps, movies, personal photos or any content available on a computer monitor overlaid on the real world.
Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a video at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference that the Vision Pro is “a revolutionary new product” capable of shifting “the way we look at technology and the role it plays in our lives.”
“This is a day that’s been years in the making,” he said. “Blending digital content with the real world can unlock experiences like nothing we’ve ever seen.”
Apple said the device, which will sell for $3,499 and won’t be available until early next year, would be a new way to interact with digital content in the physical space using the user’s hands, eyes and voice to interact with apps. Users can control the device with their hands and experience movies, TV shows and games in a more immersive way. Cook called it a new “spatial computing” platform.
The Vision Pro can project a massive movie screen into any environment for a user, as well as capture or play three-dimensional video, making it possible for a user to watch a movie on a giant screen or interact with life-size personal photos or videos projected into their living environment.
Apple’s headset launches into an uncertain market for virtual and augmented reality devices. Headset sales grew at a fast clip during the pandemic, doubling to nearly 11 million units shipped in 2021. But they dropped 21% to 8.6 million units in 2022, according to researcher International Data Corp.
Meta Platforms, which has mostly dominated the market to date with its Quest virtual-reality headsets, has struggled to keep existing users engaged, with more than half of the $400 entry-level Quest headsets not in use six months after they were purchased, The Wall Street Journal reported previously. Last week, Meta said the Meta Quest 3 headset, which the company is promoting as similar to Apple’s Vision Pro, will be available in the fall of this year for $499.
Apple announced a partnership with Walt Disney, which showed in a pre taped video what viewing experiences could potentially look like, including an immersive Star Wars TV show and a function allowing users to watch multiple sporting events simultaneously. A digital version of the Disneyland theme park could project into the user’s physical world.
“We’re constantly in search of new ways to entertain, inform and inspire our fans,” Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a pre taped video. “We believe Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary platform.” He said Disney’s streaming service would be available on the device as soon as it reaches users, which Apple said initially would only be in the U.S.
Apple showed the headset being used in work environments, including an ability to project a screen akin to a modern desktop in a way that could replace a computer monitor. Users can also use Bluetooth devices such as keyboards to type.
Some features on the device are meant to avoid isolating a user, Apple executives said. Vision Pro displays the user’s eyes on the outside of the device with a screen sitting on the front of the device. And if somebody comes nearby to someone with the headset on, it will show the person.
The headset will have the M2 chip found in the company’s Macs and will also have a new chip called “R1” for processing data from the many cameras, sensors and microphones in the device. This enables the Vision Pro to limit latency, a common issue in virtual-reality headsets that causes motion sickness. Apple said it would have a high-resolution display system so video would render in 4K and text would look sharp.
Apple has been working on the headset for seven years and has delayed the launch several times, the Journal previously reported. The headset is far more expensive than headsets sold by rivals, such as Meta Platforms’ most expensive Quest Pro headset at $1,000.
Although Apple showcased many potential features and uses of the Vision Pro headset, the company’s announcement at its software conference points to its interest in how third-party software makers can add new functions.
Hundreds of thousands of apps that already exist on iPad and iPhone operating systems will also be available through Vision OS, the Vision Pro’s operating system. Apple told developers that it is introducing tools to let them redesign existing apps on other Apple platforms for the Vision Pro, or create new types of three-dimensional apps.
The rest of the conference, which focuses on software providers who make applications for Apple’s ecosystem, will run through Friday. A large portion of the developer sessions for the week will be focused on developing for the headset, the Journal reported previously.
The applications, which might run the gamut from games to workplace apps, are critical to the company’s strategy of drawing potential new users to the technology, which has yet to take off among a broad consumer base.
In the weeks leading up to the conference, many software makers working on virtual reality and other similar applications have received invitations to the event held at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. Apple booked in-person demonstrations for some developers following the Monday keynote.
In addition to the headset, the company launched a number of new software features for its existing slate of devices, including a new iPhone app called Journal for users to help them write about their days. The app prompts users to “practice gratitude” and technology to help capture moments from photos or travel experiences. The Wall Street Journal previously reported about the new app.
In its Health app, the company added an ability to log a user’s mood and state of mind. Apple said this will help users to see their current risk for depression or anxiety. The company has been involved in studying potential signals of depression with the University of California, Los Angeles. The Journal previously reported on Apple’s work on mental health.
Apple’s iOS 17 has a number of updates to help improve communication features in the company’s phone app, FaceTime and messages, including new artificial-intelligence techniques to improve typing on the keyboard and dictation.
Apple showed off a new 15-inch MacBook Air, which has an M2 chip and sells for $1,299. The company unveiled other upgrades to its M-series of chips in other Mac products as well aimed at professional users. Sales of Macs have fallen off recently following a surge during the pandemic after the company unveiled the M-series of chips, which it designed. In the company’s most recently reported earnings for the quarter ended April 1, the Mac business shrank 31% from the prior year.
Apple’s new Mac operating system, called Sonoma, includes a number of new features designed to improve video games.
Japanese game developer Hideo Kojima showed up in a video to support the new gaming initiatives, announcing that his latest game, “Death Stranding,” would be launching on Macs later this year.
AirPods headphones also have new features, including software that automatically adjusts the AirPods to the environment the user is in, such as turning on noise cancellation if it is noisy.
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On Bastille Day, the scent of toasted bread, melting cheese, crêpes and velouté filled a heritage warehouse in Sydney’s Darlinghurst.
Inside Prim Haus, rooms had been transformed into an elegant interpretation of a contemporary French home. Cookware hung alongside market produce, appliances were placed within carefully composed domestic settings and live kitchens turned out French comfort food throughout the afternoon.
The occasion was La Maison de Tefal, an immersive celebration marking 70 years since a French engineer introduced an invention that would fundamentally change home cooking.
Tefal’s story began in 1956 with the commercial launch of what the company describes as the world’s first non-stick frying pan. Seven decades later, the business operates across cookware, kitchen appliances, garment care and floor care in more than 120 countries.
The scale of the modern brand is considerable, but its origins were remarkably domestic.
The invention that started in a French kitchen
In the early 1950s, French engineer Marc Grégoire began experimenting with polytetrafluoroethylene, better known as PTFE, after discovering its unusually effective non-stick properties.
The material was already known within industrial applications. Grégoire’s important contribution was developing a way to bond it securely to an aluminium disc.
According to the company’s history, a conversation with his wife inspired him to apply the process to cookware. The resulting pan allowed meat and eggs to be cooked using less fat, while making the surface considerably easier to clean.
Grégoire patented his non-stick frying-pan concept in 1954 and began selling the finished product in 1956. The new company’s name combined the French words for the two defining materials: Téflon and aluminium.
The attraction was immediate. This was innovation expressed through a simple, recognisable household problem. Food stuck to pans; the new Tefal pan was designed so it would not.
The idea quickly travelled beyond France. Tefal entered the United States in 1961, the same year the company established the production site at Rumilly, near the French Alps. Rumilly would become the centre of Tefal’s cookware expertise and develop an identity as the “frying pan capital of the world”.
The company says more than 35 million cookware items were manufactured at the Rumilly site in 2022. A local museum holds the 500 millionth pan produced by the factory, which came off the line in March 1994.
A Parisian home in the heart of Sydney
La Maison de Tefal translated that industrial history into a more intimate experience.
Held on 14 July, the anniversary used Bastille Day as both a cultural reference and a reminder that Tefal’s identity remains closely connected to French design and engineering.
Prim Haus was arranged as a sequence of domestic environments rather than a conventional product showroom. Guests moved through spaces devoted to cookware, kitchen appliances, garment care and floor care, with each collection presented within the rhythm of a modern home.
A French-market-inspired cooking area formed the social centre of the event. Live stations served croque-monsieur, crêpes and butternut velouté, demonstrating the products through food rather than static displays.
That distinction matters. Tefal’s most successful products have generally been those whose benefit can be understood almost immediately: a pan that releases food, a removable handle that saves cupboard space, an indicator showing when cookware has reached the correct temperature, or an appliance that automates part of a familiar cooking process.
Interactive demonstrations allowed guests to handle the products and see those functions in context. Heritage installations traced the brand’s development, while previews of newer releases connected its first frying pan with the much broader contemporary range.
The anniversary concluded with a champagne toast — an appropriately French punctuation mark for a company whose products have found their way into kitchens around the world.
Seventy years of practical invention
The non-stick frying pan established the operating principle Tefal continues to follow: find an everyday source of friction and develop a practical way to reduce it.
In 1996, the company introduced Ingenio, a modular cookware system built around removable handles. Pans could be stacked more efficiently and moved from cooktop to oven, table and refrigerator without the fixed handle of conventional cookware.
The concept anticipated the pressures that would reshape urban kitchens. As apartments became more compact and storage more valuable, cookware needed to occupy less room and serve more than one function.
Around the beginning of the following decade, Tefal introduced its heat-indicator technology, now known as Thermo-Signal. The circular marker changes appearance when the pan reaches its recommended cooking temperature, turning a technical question into a visual prompt.
In 2006, Tefal expanded the possibilities of countertop cooking with ActiFry. The appliance circulated hot air around food and used little or no added oil, helping establish a product category that would eventually become one of the most competitive areas of the global appliance market.
Innovation also moved beyond cooking. The Freemove cordless steam iron arrived in 2012, removing the cord from the active ironing movement while retaining a powered base.
The company’s current portfolio now extends across multicookers, grills, air fryers, blenders, ice-cream makers, garment steamers, irons and floor-care products. Although the categories are diverse, the common proposition remains convenience grounded in engineering.
The next generation of non-stick cookware
For its 70th year, Tefal has returned to the product that created the brand.
The new Excellence+ cookware range introduces what the company calls FusionCore technology. Tefal describes it as its most durable non-stick coating to date, designed to withstand intensive use and scratching.
As with any durability claim, consumers should follow the manufacturer’s care instructions and consider the applicable warranty rather than interpreting promotional language as a guarantee against every form of damage. But the focus on longer-lasting coatings reflects an important change in buyer expectations.
Convenience is no longer enough on its own. Modern households are increasingly concerned with how long products remain useful, whether they can be repaired and what happens when they reach the end of their working life.
Tefal has responded in several ways. Its Renew cookware uses recycled aluminium and a ceramic non-stick coating, while Groupe SEB has expanded cookware recycling initiatives in international markets. For many small domestic appliances, the group also promotes a 15-year repairability commitment based on parts availability and access to authorised repairers.
The details and warranty periods vary by product and country, so Australian buyers should check the conditions attached to an individual appliance. Nevertheless, repairability represents a meaningful shift from the assumption that a failed countertop appliance should simply be discarded.
From French manufacturer to global household group
Tefal joined Groupe SEB in 1968, giving the company greater international distribution and the resources to expand beyond cookware.
Founded in 1857 and headquartered in France, Groupe SEB has grown into a global small-appliance and cookware business with more than 30 brands. Its portfolio includes All-Clad, Krups, Moulinex, Rowenta, Lagostina and WMF, with operations extending across more than 150 countries.
Within that group, Tefal remains one of the flagship names — and one of the clearest examples of how a single invention can become the foundation for an international consumer brand.
Its longevity has not come from making everyday objects more complicated. The strongest Tefal products do the opposite. They take a small uncertainty, inconvenience or frustration and design it out of the task.
That was the value of Marc Grégoire’s original frying pan. It did not ask people to change what they cooked. It made the existing process easier, more predictable and less difficult to clean afterwards.
Seventy years later, that deceptively modest principle continues to guide the company.
La Maison de Tefal celebrated the products, the French heritage and the anniversary itself. Yet the larger story was visible at every cooking station and demonstration: innovation becomes lasting only when people can use it without having to think about the technology underneath.
For Tefal, the next 70 years will be shaped by new materials, smarter appliances, changing homes and greater expectations around durability. Its challenge will be to keep evolving without losing sight of the insight that started everything — that the most valuable household inventions often solve the most ordinary problems.
Tefal at a glance
- Founded: France, 1956
- Founder: Engineer Marc Grégoire
- Original innovation: Commercialisation of the first non-stick frying pan
- Manufacturing heritage: Rumilly, France
- Notable innovations: Ingenio, Thermo-Signal, ActiFry and Freemove
- Latest cookware development: Excellence+ with FusionCore technology
- Parent company: Groupe SEB
- International presence: More than 120 countries
- Australian website: Tefal Australia
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