Apple finally revealed the $3,499 Vision Pro, its long-awaited “mixed reality” headset, this week. It conjured up many descriptions — a “spatial computer that seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world”, a “personal movie theatre with a screen that feels 100 feet wide” — but one word remained glaringly absent: “metaverse”.

The metaverse, a virtual world in which people would meet as avatars to play, work and socialise, was all the rage not long ago. Facebook renamed itself Meta in 2021, and companies from Microsoft to Sony have proudly unveiled headsets. But the vision that excited executives has landed with a thud among consumers.

“This one is for you, the believers . . . the people who’d rather be early than fashionably late,” Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, declared with a touch of snark last year as he unveiled its professional Meta Quest Pro headset. On cue, Apple rolled up late to the party this week with a disdainful glance at the early arrivals.

Apple took its time. It has been working on virtual and augmented reality for seven years and the Vision Pro still lacks some of the design sleekness for which it is known: the headset is tethered to a separate battery. Yet those who tried it briefly were impressed by the high-definition clarity of its images and the thinking behind them.