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Apple Vision Pro is NOT expensive and Not VR device.
- Thread starter sunny5
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I don’t think this product is aimed at the general consumer to be honest. I wouldn’t spend £4k on a TV or a computer, let alone an AR headset despite having the money in the bank to do so. It’s just not an interesting enough product to me where I’d invest so much. I doubt i’ll get the cheaper version either to be honest as I really can’t think of a scenario where I’d use it. I’m sure it’ll be a success like other Apple products that sell to their niche.
A bottom-of-the-line 16" MacBook Pro costs $2499, compared to the Vision Pro at $3499.
Anyone who needs a laptop computer to earn their living may find it a smart choice. If you use it for work 8 hours a day, why wouldn't you want the most efficient and productive tool? For example, whenever there's a press conference about a Mars landing, you see all the planetary scientists with their MacBook Pros hard at work.
Construction contractors spend $50,000+ on their work pickup trucks because it is a critical tool they use every day.
I don't see $3499 being a barrier to any working person.
Anyone who needs a laptop computer to earn their living may find it a smart choice. If you use it for work 8 hours a day, why wouldn't you want the most efficient and productive tool? For example, whenever there's a press conference about a Mars landing, you see all the planetary scientists with their MacBook Pros hard at work.
Construction contractors spend $50,000+ on their work pickup trucks because it is a critical tool they use every day.
I don't see $3499 being a barrier to any working person.
I can’t imagine it’s healthy wearing it for 8 hours a day and I don’t think it can be compared to a laptop as it’s a totally different type of product. If someone wants to replace their laptop with one of these than all the luck to them I say. It’s not an easy product to use in a work environment that involves collaborating unless it’s for sole independent uses I would say.
A decade, a quarter or half century ago many would have said the same thing with B&W TVs, green screen CRTs and now OLED displays.
And yet here we are on MR spending a hour or two talking about it.
Those were opinions from people who had no concept of the technology or foresight into how it would improve the things they do though. I think we in the modern era have a totally different mindset and are willing to try new technologies in order to enhance our lifestyles. We also have an appreciation for what we can see ourselves using and this sort of product will appeal to some people but not all. I couldn’t where a monitor would experience on my face for my entire working day and wouldn’t want to. Those that do want to do that are more than welcome to. There will be options for everyone and that’s the beauty of the modern era.
Exactly
No different than before Y2K.
We like what is familiar to them.
But the growth market now are people in their 20s. The Vision Pro, once priced $429-1599 like the iPhone today, will be the device for them.
I don’t agree it’s purely aimed at people in their 20’s. On average these days that age bracket are a lot poorer than those in their 30’s and 40’s. There’s a good reason high end goods are more attractive to people with higher disposable incomes. If the prices come down to the level you suggest, surely it would appeal to a wider audience anyway?
The 1st gen product will be for 3rd party devs and people who dont know what to do with $3499.
Has there ever been a generation where in their 20s richer than those in their 30s & 40s?
Users will buy into it over time.
Apple's positioning themselves for the next Mac, iPod & iPhone.
Cornering the top 20% of any market.
The Vision Pro is a developer device, priced for developers, who will use it to create apps for future generation devices that everyone will own. Remember the Lisa? Adjusted for inflation, it would cost over $30,000 today. It led the way to the $599 Mac Mini and other much cheaper Macs that we have today, and most people can afford.
Give it some time. Buy a Quest 3 if you want something to hold you over until the cheaper Vision is released in a couple years.
The Vision Pro is not a developer device... people keep on saying that to justify a high price device with no average price device... When it goes on sale, it will go on sale in the US only... and there are developers all around the world not just in the US. It will also go on sale to the general public, not restricted to developers... and because of this and the expected limited ability to manufacture en mass... may mean there could be no more than 500,000 devices sold in the entire 2024... or even if they manage to solve supply and manufacturing issues which currently are limiting that number... never more than around 900,000. That means it will very likely not get in the hands of developers to develop other than a few that have a special relationship with Apple right now. The initial A processor Mac Mini was a developer device... it was sold to developers to develop (ONLY).
I just don't see the average person buying the first generation Vision Pro. It will mostly be of interest to developers, and those with money to burn. By the time the developer community creates a decent app library for the Vision Pro, the first generation will already be obsolete. The second generation Vision Pro should be available to the whole world by the end of 2025.
I'm hoping that Apple has a decent upgrade program for the Vision Pro, similar to what they do with the iPhone, so you only have to pay full price the first time.
This is not true. The Apple Silicon Dev Kit is not sold to developers. It was rent and devs had to return it once the Mac with Apple Silicon were officially released.
Apple already have a Mac. They want Devs to try Apple Silicon so slapping Apple Silicon into Mac mini they already had makes sense. Apple now don't have any Vision Pro produced. Don't mistake the ones shown in WWDC as that is only prototypes that didn't function properly. They only function for specific things Apple wanted to demo. They're simply the iPhone Steve Jobs held in his hand at that famous WWDC.
So in a sense saying the first version Vision Pro is for developer is not wrong. Of course Apple will sell it to anyone who buy it but VP devs will benefit from it the most.
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The ones with VPs will be the ones willing to spend money and get their order in the earliest... the rest will have to wait... and that includes developers who would purchase it for development but who are in the wrong country (not the US) -- or who were able to get the order in the quickest. There will be a severe shortage because with the number of units being able to be built - there are enough people with the disposable income to buy the new (expensive toy). If it was a developer unit, they could restrict the early sales to just those that have have had a developer account from before the date of announcement - with priority being given to those with at least one app to their record. Even then the number of developer accounts is in the millions I believe... then after a 2 week period (of worldwide developer sales), if there are units left - they could open it up to everyone.
I wonder if the average person on the street will have to wait for the second generation Vision Pro, or will Apple make more of the first generation if there is enough demand for it? If it's a wait for the second generation, I wonder how long that might be?
I get what you're saying but Apple just doesn't operate that way (sell something to devs only).
Sony declined to increase the production for Micro OLED despite the high demand from Apple. The 900,000 units per year is the maximum numbers they can produce and Apple needs 2 per headset (plus front display OLED from LG). Even with all the money invested into this, there is no way to increase the production due to the rare materials they need. It is not only costly but also highly complicated to produce the micro display.
Calling it an expensive VR headset is like calling it an expensive gameboy.
It is the first ever Apple spatial computer.
Exactly, it is not a developer edition - it is a general release product with a higher price tag because it costs more to produce and limited 3rd party support. After that it is what you will make of it... unless you are saying the original IBM PC which I used which basically had wordstar and macro assembler available for it... and sold for more $$$ than this device once configured a bit so it was useable... was a developer edition... which it was not. If a developer wants to justify it's cost that way so they can buy the new toy (most of which won't actually develop anything for delivery) by thinking that way... so be it... But it is really the device creator to make it a 'developer edition'.
So basically 900,000 units - 2 per device... that is 450,000 in the first year... if it goes to manufacturing now... you are talking maybe a total of 200,000 units maximum on initial release. They will likely 'sell' much more than that even at the high price, which means extremely constrained sales with for the most-part a first come first sell device available only in the US (since they put that on their web page now, I doubt they will sell in 3rd countries for the foreseeable future. God only knows that if there are some enterprises looking to get it for their own professional internal development.. how that will affect retail sales.
Maybe limited availability will encourage companies like Meta to rush development on their next generation devices. The Quest 3 isn't going to be a Vision Pro killer, but maybe the Quest 4 will be one step closer.
I have never seen one <Apple Device Killer> ever kill that device... Given their CPU/GPU (3rd party) is weaker - and nothing yet seen that will make that go away, their OS is inferior, and they ran a $14 billion dollar deficit in Reality Labs (that to me seems to indicate selling at a loss since the entirety of the Apple R&D budget for special projects like AR, cars, general research, macs, iPads, phones, silicon, etc... is around $26 billion)... and because the device has been on the market for a while, the investors are expecting a push to bring that in line with released products... and Zuck sort of did promise that in 2023... Meta will have the $500< market... and that is what they will probably continue to have for some time. It is something that just cannot be rushed.