Bono: Apple is ‘Dying to Make Vision Pro Affordable’
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Later this month, Apple will premiere Bono: Stories of Surrender, a concert-style “documentary event” that marks the first feature-length Immersive film for the Apple Vision Pro.
The new 86-minute film debuts on Apple TV+ on Friday, May 30. That same day, Apple will make a version shot in Apple Immersive Video available to Apple Vision Pro users. Previous Immersive Video films have been more like featurettes, with a much shorter running time, generally in the 5 to 15-minute range.
The film’s subject, Bono, has sat down with Mike Fleming Jr. at Variety to discuss his experience on the project, as well as Apple’s ambitions to make the Vision Pro more affordable to attract more customers.
Mike Fleming Jr. writes at Variety:
DEADLINE: The first time I saw the film on Apple Vision Pro, I was the proverbial caveman looking at fire. I felt like I was onstage with you. What sparked you to put in that work here to help advance this technology, and where do you see it going in terms of disruptive storytelling?
BONO: Apple have this new sonic innovation commitment to fidelity of sound. Sounds are becoming really important in movies, in people’s home cinemas. The Vision Pro, it’s a commitment. You’re getting into a world, and there are extraordinary things I’ve seen through the Vision Pro. … We had this idea of, well, the camera can be onstage and walking around you. We couldn’t light it as easy as we thought, but we successfully got the viewer on stage. I took out my drawings from the stage show for the filming, and they’re not in the 2D Apple TV+ version of Stories of Surrender, but they are in Vision Pro. Those childlike drawings — no one would like to be able to draw as badly as me — but it’s like a signature, a fingerprint.
DEADLINE: How did it help to personalize an already personal story?
BONO: It made it really playful. I know Apple are dying to make the Vision Pro more affordable and more democratic, but they’re committed to innovation, they’re committed to experimenting. They know not everyone can afford this, but they’re still going for it, believing that some way down the line, it’ll make financial sense for them. But the fact that they may have to wait a while is not putting them off.
Bono and Apple have a long history of collaboration (including a not-so-well-received free U2 album that automatically appeared on users’ devices), so his thoughts on the company’s latest work are interesting, to say the least.
By providing his insights on the Vision Pro, as well as Apple’s commitment to the headset, despite its high price and disappointing sales, Bono offers reassurance that Apple won’t be giving up on the Vision Pro anytime soon.
Bono’s comments jibe with those of reliable sources, including Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and The Information’s Wayne Ma, who revealed last summer that the higher-end Vision Pro could be put on the back burner, allowing Apple to concentrate on a more affordable model that it has been working on for a while now.
