I see absolutely no path to popular calls like $999-$1999 pricing without hammering the "vision" part of it and adopting what cheaper competitors offer (1080p quality)... which would then be hammered by not-fans for being "blurry." Whatever we would imagine Apple doing to deliver some price we want to call would need to factor in Apple's target of near 50% margin. So even if you can get the parts assembled in some Vpro Jr for up to $700, layer on the marketing budget, etc to make total COGS more like $1K, Apple's target margin will point to starting at $2K. And I've seen more than once that the 4K lenses alone cost Apple more than $700 by themselves. The $1K price means $500 in total costs, which would have to be towards a piece of junk relatively.
Here's my best shot at "cheaper" Vpro 2 without compromising 4K per eye:
- drop the googly eyes front feature that seems towards universally lambasted- even among Vpro fans, I don't see many talking that up as important. However, that's mostly just a screen and probably generously could only cut maybe up to $100 from the total price.
- drop built-in audio, basically jettisoning audio to "sold separately" buds/phones. Apple is no stranger to "subtraction" of key features- especially if they help sell accessories available from Apple. But again, my guess is that could probably only generously drop maybe $100 from total price too.
So let's get more meaningful "cuts" in place but again, without resorting to killing 4K per eye:
- ADD the Apple cellular modem to avoid the Qualcomm premium and bring cell service subsidies into the pitch. That seems to be towards about $1000, so this one thing- albeit with only financing trickery- would appear to cut about $1000 from the up-front price.
- Offer special financing through Applepay whereby buyer pays taxes and maybe a small amount down to get the balance under $3600 and then offer 36 months @ 0%. Buyer is still paying full price so Apple gets theirs but now the proposition is $99 vs. $3499... even if the former is "PER MONTH." Many view and make purchases based upon fitting into a monthly payments capacity and this would transform the perception of $3499 into a perception of $99 in one simple stroke.
- Combine the two together with 48 month 0% to make the $99 become $49.
- Or bend either term more like the Volkswagen tactic of 39 or 51 months with no payments for the first 3 months to make $99* or $49* become $0* for 3 months.
- And, of course, cell service capability would quickly have cellular partners offering better-than $49-99 payment offers from Apple by going on to the "free*" pitch like they do with iPhone now.
Yes, much of that is just marketing/financing "trickery" but that works just fine to make $1500 iPhones "sell" over and over every few years. Few question laying out towards half of Vpro pricing via phone or Mac financing every couple of years and, in fact, defend such pricing and set alarms to wake up in the wee hours to be among first to spend the money.
Financing trickery works... so apply some novel variation of it to
this product.
Lastly, the ultra-wide virtual screen is a signature feature of the "as is" so consider creating a cheaper version that is primarily just capable of that
one thing... dropping the many cameras, etc and even making the processing to render the view happen within the Mac itself. In short, this would be a gigantic virtual display "for your face" vs. being a VR/AR thing at all. I would guess this could possibly get to about $1799-1999 Apple MSRP, which could then have Apple financing to position it at well below $100/month instead of $1799-1999. Maybe Mac battery can own the powering too to jettison the battery portion of this product.
All this "$1000 and I'll buy" stuff probably doesn't come for a decade+ without deep compromises to the quality of the "vision" and the functionality driven by all those cameras. Apples target margin alone just can't support competing on price with the cheap ones already available. Those wanting something for $1000 or less should buy those already in the market at those prices... and live with inferior "vision" (resolution), inferior "functionality" etc... just like one can live with cheap Android smart phones, cheap tablets and cheap PCs instead of Apple's "expensive" offerings.
