Tim Cook Avoids Apple Vision’s ‘Scoble Shower’ Moment

May 12, 2023

Remember those classic Apple moments? Steve Jobs taking a MacBook Air out of a manilla envelope. Steve Jobs revealing the iPod Nano from that mystery pocket found in your pair of jeans, Steve Jobs sitting back on a comfy chair with an iPad. The new products were introduced with a flourish, followed by a practical demonstration of their use. You could see that Jobs was using his products before asking you to use them.

Why did we not see Tim Cook wearing an Apple Vision Pro during its launch at WWDC?

Tim Cook and Apple Vision

For all the reassuring talk of Apple Vision Pro keeping you connected to the real world, to see what is happening around you and to have your eyes "pass through" to the outward-facing display to help maintain a connection to people talking to you, the obvious demonstration was missing.

Tim Cook never wore an Apple Vision Pro. No Apple executive wore an Apple Vision Pro. No presenter wore an Apple Vision Pro. Why?

You might have noticed the release date: early 2024 in the U.S., with other countries to follow. That's a lot of lead time for developers to build apps for the mixed-reality headset (no doubt under heavy NDA to gain access to pre-release hardware). That's over a year to hype the headset and shape the ecosystem to Apple's definition of spatial computing. The Apple Vision Pro will launch into a market with a pre-prepared Apple Vision-shaped hole.

It's going to take time to manufacture that hole. Expectations will need to be managed. Wearing the bulky ski mask needs to be desirable rather than dorky. As it stands, the tightly directed promotional videos and photos are leading the coverage of the Apple Vision Pro.

Searching for Tim Cook wearing Apple Vision

Imagine what the coverage would feel like if the defining image was Tim Cook's synthetic eyes staring out of one. Would that make the headset more desirable or more dorky at this very moment in time?

One bad photo, one emotional beat out of place and the planned year-long PR campaign will be derailed. Just ask the Google Glass team how product-defining a single image can be in Silicon Valley.

Robert Scoble and Google Glass

For all of the tightly directed promotional video work on how the headset could be used, the story must avoid a Robert Scoble in the shower moment controlling the early narrative.

I wonder how long it will take until we see Tim Cook wearing an Apple Vision Pro in public?

Now read about Apple's blink and you’ll miss it launch of the new 15-inch MacBook Air.