Apple Likely to Make Vision Pro Lineup More Affordable in Two Ways

[MichaelAdam]

Price weight killer features is all wrong in the VP … remind me the first gold Apple Watch that wanted to be everything and finally went to focus on mainly fitness and health which makes sense … I want a VP to replace my screens for better productivity better entertainment along side my iPhone my Mac My iPad and my Apple TV … I don’t need sound I don’t need cameras I just need screens like millions of me …

 

[Audentia]

Not everyone has issues with the weight. I have been using it for hours with no issues.

That's fine that you don't have an issue with it, but that's like, just your opinion man. I would suggest that the majority of people do have an issue, which is why posts and straps like this even exist. It's clearly a problem they need to address. In my opinion, the number 1 problem, but that's like, just my opinion.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1868786671946485986

 

[Cunir]

they should start pushing loads more live sports games, music concerts, comedy gigs and theatre shows. you could watch all of those on facebook's original oculus years ago, but it still hasn't really taken off as an alternative to buying a ticket and attending in real life. apple have had some nice ones on there, but if they scheduled loads of new shows and sports games every week then I could see more people forking out for a headset

 

[cdsapplefan]

For what it is, the Apple Vision Pro is as fashionable as it can possibly be without being super compromised. It definitely doesn’t look cheap like my quest three

You’re just not going to see people wearing it like $100 pair of AirPods especially when it it’s primarily a home device

Yeah Forgot that the AVP is pushed as a home device mainly.

I’m thinking of there AR Glasses 👓 project as a on the go device and small and compact.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

I would suggest that the majority of people do have an issue, which is why posts and straps like this even exist. It's clearly a problem they need to address. In my opinion, the number 1 problem

Yup. My Quest 3 weighs 516 grams/18.2 ounces (I measured it, confirming Meta's figures), and Apple says the AVP weighs between 600 and 650 grams/21.2 to 22.9 ounces, depending on the configuration of the light seal and headband, and despite the Quest 3's slightly lesser weight, I find that it starts to be annoying when I've worn it for about an hour, using the standard stretchy strap that comes with the Quest, which presses the face gasket too firmly against my face, and it gets increasingly uncomfortable after that, but I don't yet have one of the third-party halo-style head straps that's supposed to make wearing the Quest easier.

Some people find this default strap to be fine for them, even for extended use, but the current round of bulky VR headsets would benefit from being shipped with a head strap that works for extended use for more people right out of the box, while manufacturers figure out how to make the headset itself significantly lighter.

Edit: I bought a BoboVR S3 Pro halo-style head strap for my Quest, and it helps a lot in distributing the weight of the Quest on my head more evenly, but maybe its biggest benefit for me is that it allowed me to remove the Quest's face gasket altogether so that the Quest hangs suspended off of the head strap's two connections to the Quest's two side mounting points above and in front of my ears. This leaves air space between my face and the Quest, and though this causes light leakage, eliminating some of the "immersive" quality that using the face gasket provides, I find it handy to have some minimal view of the real world at the periphery of my vision, since I don't really play immersive games on the Quest, and I don't need the immersive environments, animated shorts, and films to totally separate me from the real world. If I decide to sometimes wear a face gasket, I'd get a third-party one that's more comfortable.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Prosumer hardware is not for many/most people in principle. It’s a distinct segment from other consumer segments that coexists just fine with them.

The Quest 3 is NOT a prosumer headset but it not being so offers and enables different trade-offs inappropriate for the segment Apple is catering to with the Vision Pro.

Sure, I agree that there's a relatively stable niche market for many prosumer devices, allowing for capabilities that lower-tech/lower-priced devices can't really match, but I was under the impression (maybe a misimpression) that Apple's plans to release a less-costly Vision headset might be intended to try to capture at least part of the mass market currently held by the Quests, etc. But rather than trying for a mass-market Vision version, maybe Apple is hoping to appeal to some level of consumer that's between mass market and prosumer, which might be a substantial enough segment to make it a viable product.

 

[Isamilis]

Apple plans to launch its next-generation Vision headsets as early as 2026, and they will likely be more affordable, according to TrendForce.

In line with previous rumors, the Taiwanese research firm today said Apple is planning to introduce both a next-generation Vision Pro and a mainstream headset, which would likely be named "Apple Vision" without the "Pro" modifier.

For the next-generation Vision Pro, TrendForce said Apple will likely consider sourcing components from suppliers beyond Sony to reduce production costs, and this move could contribute to the headset having a lower price. Currently, the Vision Pro starts at $3,499 in the U.S., and this price has naturally limited sales of the device.

In an interview earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that the Vision Pro is not a mass-market product due to its high price.

"At $3,500, it's not a mass-market product," said Cook. "Right now, it's an early-adopter product. People who want to have tomorrow's technology today—that's who it's for. Fortunately, there's enough people who are in that camp that it's exciting."

In July, research firm IDC estimated that Vision Pro sales would be below 500,000 units this year.

While the next Vision Pro could be at least slightly more affordable, TrendForce ensured that the device will continue to have high-end specifications, including display technology with a resolution exceeding 3,000 pixels per inch.

In addition to a Vision Pro price cut, a lower-end model is also expected eventually.

For this mainstream Vision headset, the research firm said that Apple is expected to focus on "affordability and "cost-efficiency" as a main priority, which should make visionOS accessible to more customers at a considerably lower price compared to the Vision Pro. It said the device could have less-advanced displays to keep costs down.

"Possible display options for this model include glass-based OLED displays and LCDs with LTPO backplane technology, both of which offer a balance between performance and cost," said TrendForce, in a press release.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last month said the next Vision Pro will actually launch in 2025, with an M5 chip in place of the current M2 chip, but he said Apple pushed back its plans for a cheaper Vision headset until beyond 2027.

Article Link: Apple Likely to Make Vision Pro Lineup More Affordable in Two Ways

Niche product plus insanely expensive are perfect combo!

 

[dandyryan]

fair enough. you do what you like. we all do, but personally I choose not to bother posting on forums telling people what I am not going to do.

yet you personally choose to bother responding to me with this useless comment. let's keep the topic on spatial computing in general like i have.

 

[Marshall73]

Have you actually tried the AVP? I have a 77 inch LG OLED which I bought a few months ago, and yet I prefer the quality and size offered by the AVP. The quality is even better than what you get in the cinema and you can get cinema sized screens in the AVP.

That said, I wish that AVP can watch the same content. Currently, I cannot share the joy with my family, so when watching with my family, I fall back on the 77 OLED TV.

I just don’t like wearing a scuba mask to watch movies. I can’t see how the AVP can be better when it weighs much more than the MQ3.

 

[Ghost31]

I just don’t like wearing a scuba mask to watch movies. I can’t see how the AVP can be better when it weighs much more than the MQ3.

Yes, not trying things and not understanding how things can be good is probably somehow related