Apple Now Selling $300 Developer Strap for Vision Pro

[Will Co]

How much cheaper? What does this cost Apple to design, have manufactured, and to support?

It's a specialized tool with a most likely small demand (not just because of the cost): https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...nostics-mode-revealed-in-more-detail.2418210/

It's unlikely most developers would need it.

C'mon, don't go there. That's just a few pennies of silicon and plastic housing that they already had to develop for their in-house teams to get their job done. The costs on that R&D are already written off. Sure - make an opportunistic profit - that's what businesses do. But $300 is obscene for something like that. The fact that few developers might need it is no reason to stiff the ones that do, given the above arguments.

 

[Eso]

Insert obligatory “Courage” here I guess.

 

[contacos]

This device is really only targeted towards rich people eh? It’s almost like Apple is like F the poor and milk the rich 😅

 

[Will Co]

Not directly to your point, but this doesn't have to be a profit center for Apple.

Blasphemous I know, but given the restricted availability and the fact that more development helps Apple, it's not unreasonable for it to be sold at a loss (relative to bill of materials/R&D).

Completely agree. Heck - sell it at cost or even make a few bucks. But $300? For pennies of silicon and plastic, at the volume these will be made at?

 

[Will Co]

This device is really only targeted towards rich people eh? It’s almost like Apple is like F the poor and milk the rich 😅

It's exactly that. It's actually insulting.

 

[citysnaps]

Chum in the water alert.

Another thing to go non-linear on with outrage and whines.

 

[snak-atak]

Kinda reminds me of something I learned in elem school. A single pencil costs $47,000 to make. The subsequent pencils costs <$.01 to manufacture once you bought all the lumbar, graphite, paint, machinery, and then put it all together.

This piece is probably something like that. It costed Apple $MM to develop, but so few are sold that the avg cost per dongle is somewhere around $300.

With that said, you’d think Apple would be willing to take the loss on this device if it helps developers create better apps which therefore makes the AVP that much more valuable and appealing.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Not directly to your point, but this doesn't have to be a profit center for Apple.

Blasphemous I know, but given the restricted availability and the fact that more development helps Apple, it's not unreasonable for it to be sold at a loss (relative to bill of materials/R&D).

Has Apple ever sold a product for a loss? I know some people have speculated they have, but it's not really ever been Apple's approach. Not saying Apple has to stick with that, but selling things for a loss has never been in its business plan.

 

[seek3r]

Developers already pay $100 a year to be a developer. Developers get no discounts on products for which they develop, but they get the privilege of buying a $300 dongle just to test apps on a device. Apple is really ridiculous to develop for sometimes.

There used to be developer discounts, including a one time student dev discount that was huge, it was how I bought my first mac pro

Good old days, get off my lawn, and all that I suppose

 

[ttyRazor]

Not directly to your point, but this doesn't have to be a profit center for Apple.

Blasphemous I know, but given the restricted availability and the fact that more development helps Apple, it's not unreasonable for it to be sold at a loss (relative to bill of materials/R&D).

The price makes sense as a deterrent for anyone buying it thinking they’ll use it for anything else than whatever dev stuff it does.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's like they are trying to see how much they can get away with at this point

 

[Timo_Existencia]

You mean those determined NOT to buy the AVP are now even more determined?

 

[scrapesleon]

I guess spending 4k wasn't enough already

 

[ant862]

The people doing mental gymnastics to defend Apple at every turn is pretty weird. They’re greedy. It’s as simple as that. Apple only cares about money, and they will nickel-and-dime you to death if you let them. They could be still wildly successful and popular with lower prices. They have decided that they want ALL the money instead of just some of it.

 

[G5isAlive]

I would assume that this lets you attach a debugger and stuff like that, but I'm confused about why they call out "graphics-intensive apps and games" in particular.

File size.

 

[carrrrrlos]

There are so many jokes for this, but I don’t want my account deleted so I’ll just state that it’s nice that Apple is providing devs a strap.

 

[Spock]

Gotta keep up those margins…

 

[Abazigal]

It’s just another business expense. Much ado over nothing.

 

[klasma]

How much cheaper? What does this cost Apple to design, have manufactured, and to support?

They have to do that for their own internal use anyway.

 

[klasma]

There are so many jokes for this, but I don’t want my account deleted so I’ll just state that it’s nice that Apple is providing devs a strap.

Only to those who aren't already strapped for cash.

 

[iZac]

Irrespective of the price it’s really interesting to know the device can do some form of tethered computing. Can we get steamVR please! I know some industrious fellows are working to hack the PSVR2 to work with Steam. If nothing else the PCVR community is dedicated, and I hope they all want the fidelity of the AVP without the subscription nonsense of a Varjo.

 

[smorrissey]

whoa whoa! what is next charging for bugs?

 

[DFZD]

I'm shocked that Apple has not yet released a table stand for the AVP for a fair price of $499.

 

[goobot]

Thunderbolt cable is 150$, how can they justify the price is beyond me. Typical apple nickel and diming

 

[thewiccaman]

You can buy the new Metaquest for this price almost!