It is almost certainly a problem with size, cost, and features.

The wearables are just too big, too expensive, and the feature set too small.

Much like with VR goggles, every problem they solve is solved far better and more cheaply with another device most people already have and use.

I don't think it has anything to do with the moral or social implications of taking pictures of people privately. The second any of the above are resolved, society will willingly give up even more privacy without a hiccup, as we've done every other time the choice was presented.

I think it goes beyond the social hurdle. I have an Oculus, and I just never use it. A phone or laptop screen generally just feels good enough. It's easier to start and stop using, and it doesn't feel like I'm shutting myself off from the world when I do.

Industry was where Microsoft seemed to find a home for the HoloLens, but it ultimately died as well.

In videos, cooking with the Vision Pro seemed really cool. When my dad is making a holiday meal he has his iPad up with multiple timers to try and keep track of everything. With the Vision Pro you can pin timers to each pot in space, while having all the recipes up. This all seems very cool. However, the bulk may be an issue in practice, as well as steam and other things encountered in the kitchen. The kitchen also tends to be where people socialize or want to help out, and the Vision Pro would make both of those things difficult and awkward.

I only did the in-store demo of the Vision Pro and the immersive videos were the most striking to me. When it went up high in the mountains my stomach dropped as if I was actually up high and about to fall. I’ve been sky diving and I didn’t even have the feel of unease in real life while sitting on the edge of a plane, but I had it during that video. The one with the Alicia Keys concert did it too. I wasn’t expecting it and all of the sudden she was in my personal space; it was uncomfortably close. I don’t know how you’d get that experience in any other medium. It was cool, but with the limited amount of content, it wasn’t $3,500 cool.

Most people I’ve seen talk about it online find using it as a monitor for their Mac to be the killer app, but that feels like kind of a lame killer app, especially when devices that are much less capable can do the same thing for a fraction of the cost.

The fact that we’re even talking about this is a failure on Apple’s part. They’ve successfully launched multiple new device categories where others have failed. Each time they presented the problem that the device solved. They failed to do that here and seem to be hoping the market figures it out. This is a losing strategy.