As a first-gen attempt from Apple, especially at such a high price tag, I fully expect it to take longer before they see returns on it.
It’s not exactly portable like the Quest but I don’t think they’re trying to aim for the same market either. This seems more of enthusiasts or corporate aimed.
But I’ll be watching to see if it leads to a more consumer-oriented version in the future.
I think they’ll drop the price considerably to get users and developers onboard.
To really get the average consumer, it’ll need to be around the price of a MacBook. If they can do that, it’ll sell boatloads.
Although, if they really care about gaming, it’ll need a VR controller, not just a gamepad
I don’t think the current product can sell “boatloads” at almost any reasonable price. I don’t think the current device has enough “floor” to make it possible unless they just want to sell each unit for four-figure losses to subsidize a market for it. Lots of people have tried to figure out how Apple would make a cheaper version, but just the component costs seem like anything under like $2000 would lose money. Obviously hardware gets cheaper to make over time, but it’s hard to see how they find a $999 product in this thing.
And even at $999, I’m not sure what the volume looks like.
It’s incredibly cool, and they’ll sell what I think of as “a lot” of them for $3500 to rich tech dudes, but “rich tech dudes” is a tiny fraction of Apple-scale volumes. And once you start dealing with the more wider and more price-conscious public, you probably have to have a better sales pitch than “cool”. What can this thing do that an iPad can’t do at half the price and 10x the battery life? It’s potentially a great monitor for a Macbook, but again, if you’re price conscious and you already had to buy a Macbook, do you need another thousand bucks to have a cooler way of looking at the screen that’s sitting right in front of you for free? And again, those comparisons are to a $999 product that doesn’t exist. A more realistic “cheap” Vision Pro is probably $2500 instead of $3500, and I just don’t know who buys that after “rich tech dudes”.
The product is already tethered to the battery pack, so it’s not that far of a stretch to imagine maybe a $500 version that is dependent on an iPhone or something.
Vision pro is a full computer, vision air might be a glorified display for a separate computer.
I think they’ll drop the price considerably to get users and developers onboard.
I don’t think they will. The only thing I’ve ever seen Apple lower the price on is a refurbished unit. Apple discontinues the products that don’t sell. That’s why we all use iPhones and not reduced-price Newtons.
