Bruce Dias 
With springtime comes the new MLB baseball season, taking sports fans through to the fall and the World Series. With the start of the new season came the resurgence of the MLB app (it occupied the no.1 sports spot in the Apple App Store for much of March).
Even if you aren’t a sports fan, you should be able to appreciate the MLB app. It’s a powerhouse. It forms part of mobile app history, too, as it was one of the original 500 apps chosen for the nascent App Store in 2008. In the 17 years since, the app has grown in scope, constantly updating UX and features.
Yet, our goal isn’t to extol the virtues of the MLB app – indeed, it has flaws – but rather to point to its growing integration with the Vision Pro, Apple’s AR/MR headset. With the onset of the new baseball season, Apple and MLB have made a concerted effort to highlight how the Vision Pro and the MLB app can deliver a completely revolutionary experience for fans.
Gaming & Entertainment apps may be key for Vision Pro.
Before going into some of the details, the first thing to say is that this feels logical for Apple. Vision Pro sales have been sluggish, to say the least, and some critics have claimed that Apple should have focused more on areas like entertainment and gaming on launch. It’s easy to see how the Vision Pro could deliver AR experiences in movies or immerse players in gaming experiences. The Vision Pro can provide that, but Apple insisted on broader “spatial computing” concepts for its marketing.
Regardless, the MLB app shows what can be possible. Players can use the MLB app (an MLB.TV subscription is required for live games) to beam a large screen projection of the baseball games. A wave of customizable extras complements the projection. You can, for example, take a seat (virtually) behind home plate or immerse yourself in a 3D viewing experience with interactive stats and features while having the game on a large screen in the background. It would be helpful for those who enjoy live stats, particularly those who need stats to strategize MLB odds and game betting lines. It does feel like a new way to watch.
Apple has made a push to showcase MLB on Vision Pro.
It’s difficult to describe how the experience is delivered, so you can watch Apple showcase it here. You can see how it would be enjoyed by those who enjoy sports statistics and the analytical side of the game, with additional features like player tracking and the 3D Strike Zone. Again, we should stress that the execution is not always perfect, but it does a good job of showing you the direction of travel for sports apps and the AR/VR sector.
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And that, perhaps, is the rub here. There are numerous reasons why the Vision Pro has failed to sell as Apple hoped. Indeed, reports say production has been halted for the time being. But as with smartphones, the key to the device’s success lies with the apps being built for it. The iPhone’s success depended on the global community of app developers that built the ecosystem. Devs were, of course, provided with a vision for that ecosystem by Steve Jobs. You can argue that they have not yet been provided with that for the Vision Pro, at least not entirely. Experiences like what is offered with the MLB app can give us a vision of the future.
