Cheaper Apple Vision Headset Likely to Launch by End of 2025

[klasma]

Outside screen to reveal the person's eyes as it's not for the person inside but for the people outside should have been called Foresight.

Hindsight is 20/20.

 

[beanbaguk]

It's one of the creepiest products I've ever seen. But I still want to try it....

 

[Reason077]

Apple Vision Air might be the one to wait for, given report of the device's significant weight!

 

[dugbug]

Why would you think the weight of a lower cost display like in homepod would be less?

you don't have to have a full glass cover and lenticular display panel. A simple small circle with a pattern somewhere would provide the same indication in a cool way.

 

[klasma]

If you watch the Gruber show/interview, the Apple execs go on about how core EyeSight and what it represents is to the product and to Apple. They can’t exclude it on any headsets now. Maybe a cheaper solution but the essence has to remain.

Maybe you'll have to slide in your iPhone to perform that function.

 

[kfireven]

Sorry, but they can't downgrade the screens at all.. if they do this the device will become unusable for reading text. These 4K micro-OLED screens are the bare minimum that's necessary for reading text and using virtual screens in an XR device.

 

[Matt Leaf]

I feel like well see a 2nd iteration of the Pro and visionOS v2 before we see a cheaper model. We don’t even know specs of the AVP v1 yet, like hard drive size, ram etc. So maybe once all that bumps up they’ll sell the v1 for slightly cheaper for a year or so.

 

[Bazza1]

Somewhere between Apple's usual go-to of PT Barnum huckterism to it's fanbase that'll buy anything from them, and vaporware - what's most notable about the product (aside from the price) is that not one of the Apple Execs demo'd it by putting it on.
I mean, did Tim even touch the thing?

 

[darkpaw]

Having watched the Keynote, I would really only use this for watching a movie, and putting myself in some immersive environment. I hope a cheaper one will do that, and drop some of the other stuff. I cannot afford $3,499 regardless of how much I want one.

 

[dumastudetto]

Apple Vision Pauper

 

[arkitect]

Somewhere between Apple's usual go-to of PT Barnum huckterism to it's fanbase that'll buy anything from them, and vaporware - what's most notable about the product (aside from the price) is that not one of the Apple Execs demo'd it by putting it on.
I mean, did Tim even touch the thing?

It does make you wonder why.
Here's a link to a Bloomberg article mentioning the same thing.

Link

Why Tim Cook and other Apple executives won’t publicly wear the Vision Pro. …one of the most striking things about the Vision Pro announcement is that neither Tim Cook, nor any of Apple’s other executives, were willing to wear the device publicly.

…the closest Cook would get to the device was standing next to it. Imagine if he showed off a new Apple Watch by looking at it in a glass case or a new iPhone by pointing to it on a table. That would never happen: when new watches debut, Cook shows it off on his wrist. When new iPhones come out, Cook proudly holds it up.

But the headset is different. Make no mistake about it: this was a calculated move. Every single detail of an Apple product announcement is orchestrated. All moves have a reason. So it’s worth paying attention to this. The clearest answer is that Apple knows that the headset may look bulky and dystopian on its wearers. It’s also very protective of the image of its executives. The last thing Apple needs is Tim Cook wearing the Vision Pro to become a meme.

While that is understandable, the move also shows that Apple may have reservations about the design and isn’t yet confident enough for Cook and other high-profile executives to wear it in public.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I don’t believe that Apple would compromise on image quality or head and hand tracking accuracy.

Honestly you can reduce image quality. The Vision Pro can be 4K while the consumer model be 1440p. There's probably more the consumer model doesn't need, like recording 3D video.

 

[Quu]

I don’t believe that Apple would compromise on image quality or head and hand tracking accuracy. What they announced is the baseline going forward. The illusion depends on accurate head tracking, anchoring and replicating reality outside the headset with no perceptible pixels.

When has Apple gone back on specs on the iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch etc? Cheap iPhones have Retina displays. They simply use the previous year's chips, screens, cameras etc. 2025's VisionPro will use an M3 or M4 while the Apple Vision entry tier would continue using the M2 – at that point, over 2 years old and mass produced for Macs, iPads and probably even iPhones. It'll be cheap silicon.

I can imagine dropping the audio pods (bring your own AirPods) and making adjustments manual like Mark mentioned. Unlike what Gurman thinks, EyeSight might be sacrificed. While preventing isolation is a part of their philosophy, price minded people will be fine without it. It's an expensive non essential component.

Apple is making a big bet on 3D content made for Apple Vision becoming ubiquitous. They'll double down on it. Not only is it staying as a part of any Apple Vision tier, I believe we'll see 3D cameras on every iPhone and iPad going forward to help build that desire to experience your library on an Apple Vision and drive sales and adoption.

While the Vision Pro will be released in Q1 23, they'll reset to a September update schedule like they did with the 2nd gen iPhone, giving them almost 2 years to update it, after which point, the Vision Pro's components will have been more commoditized. "Cheaper" will probably still mean in the high thousand plus, probably $1,999.

I agree with everything you said. I think we'll see three models eventually:

Vision Pro Gen2,3,4,5 etc = Always pushing the boundaries and having a price equivalent to $3,500.

Vision = Equivalent to what we have in the Vision Pro right now, but priced lower as the parts become cheaper to produce (such as combining the R1 and M2 into a single processor, reducing the number of cameras by using wider ones with better machine learning etc).

Vision Air = An even lighter version that removes the external facing display and removes the audio pods in lieu of using your own AirPods etc. No more glass front, just a facia from which the cameras pop out of etc

Of course, I'm just guessing but I feel like this strategy makes sense. The Vision Pro should always be pushing whats possible to get people excited then they buy the one they can afford and that doesn't mean the Vision or Vision Air need to be crappy. I fully expect that the experience we saw with the Vision Pro will be the baseline that the cheaper headsets meet it's just as those come out the Pro will continue to rise to new quality levels at the same time which will justify its cost.

 

[Duncan-UK]

I strongly suspect that they added on 499 to the Pro so they can try and spin anything below 3 grand as “affordable”

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Somewhere between Apple's usual go-to of PT Barnum huckterism to it's fanbase that'll buy anything from them, and vaporware - what's most notable about the product (aside from the price) is that not one of the Apple Execs demo'd it by putting it on.
I mean, did Tim even touch the thing?

You know that is a good point. The Apple execs have always demo'd new products. Steve Jobs proudly demo'd the new Macs. When he pulled the first Macbook Air out of that manila envelope it changed the entire laptop market and it's a moment still referenced to this day. Or when he pulled the iPod Nano out of the small jean pocket. Or his most famous instance demoing the first iPhone that blew everyone away. Even the iPad he demo'd

Tim Cook demo'd the Apple Watch even wearing it. But the Vision Pro...nothing. I get it, demoing XR HMDs is not really easy since only you can see what is being displayed, but...not even wearing it? If you're that confident in your product surely you'd at least wear it to demonstrate that just like you did with the Apple Watch and AirPods.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Mark is on fire with this common sense ‘nobody else has the kind of insider track he does report.’

 

[JosephAW]

Obviously, look at the iPhone, it's gotten cheaper over the years

 

[Mr. Dee]

I’m sticking to my theory, a few years after the Vision Pro and v2 is released, the first version will become the entry level model at 1,600. While v2 will start at 2,500 to 3,000 because it will be more powerful. Apple will keep selling v1 even when they introduce v3 and drop it to 1,200.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

Apple Vision One name suggests that the cheaper option will have screen for one eye only (left one probably) and it gives significantly cost reduction. It may go even further with just one speaker but let’s wait what Kuo tell in the nearest future.

 

[dca100]

Not exactly a genuis prediction is it. It's not hard to imagine there will be a gen2 in 2025 with various upgraded specs. The original then becomes the "SE" model at a significantly lower price. Maybe I should start a predictions blog

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I’m sticking to my theory, a few years after the Vision Pro and v2 is released, the first version will become the entry level model at 1,600. While v2 will start at 2,500 to 3,000 because it will be more powerful. Apple will keep selling v1 even when they introduce v3 and drop it to 1,200.

If the consumer model costs more than $1,800, it's dead.

 

[AsarTheGod]

No more jobs ive or forstall 😢 sad times indeed

 

[jclardy]

I feel the issue here is that dropping the display quality/camera passthrough kind of eliminates the biggest draw of the Vision Pro. Yes, it will have the software support...but if you can't comfortably read text people won't want to use it, especially if the "lower" price will be around $2000...I'm guessing there is some level of 2.5k/3k displays that would make it better than the Quest Pro, but if the experience is crappy then people are just going to stop using it.

I'm sure some other materials could be dropped, IE the curved front glass, keep the strap attachment, but include a cheaper strap design (And of course, you can buy others for $150.) Lenses can likely be made much cheaper at volume.

To me it just seems really difficult to place right now, as all of the components right now seem essential. Display/camera quality to sell the "vision" idea, spatial audio (a key component to the headset feeling reactive - playing sounds with "clicks") the outer display to let people know you are talking to them (More "Vision" non-pro headsets will be seen in the wild.) The biggest cut seems to be at the processor level. The R1 would likely stay the same, but the M2 can probably be swapped for something with less compute power/lower power draw. Of course there are other things, like RAM/internal storage which will obviously be lower, but I don't see those dropping more than $200-300 off the price.

 

[msackey]

Just as the original Apple Watch was fully dependent on being connected to an iPhone, I think that in the future these Vision Pro headsets will evolve or change into just glasses, and will only show Notifications and HUD type of things. Maybe, allowing some limited API of the Vision Pro’s setup so apps already working for the Pro model will “Just Work” with the “Regular” model. I am sure they could make the stems of the regular looking glasses be the battery, and then somehow fit the guts of a modern Apple Watch into the main frame of the glasses. Even during the Keynote, the other day, one of the people that was announcing all of the features for Vision Pro was wearing glasses at one point, and then wasn’t wearing glasses at another point. I remember noticing that live, and then when I watched it later, as if there was a reason they did that. Like, maybe he was already wearing a prototype of some new regular glasses. Apple is very calculated in how they present things.

Maybe I missing something but this seems to be what you're saying:

Apple Watch Series 0 : required tethering to iPhone for many functions :: future Apple Vision : will regress and end up being for primarily notifications and heads-up display (HUD).

That seems to be a rather odd regression of where the current in development Apple VisionPro is. And secondly, your imagination of where the Apple Vision Pro goes is essentially the Google Glass and VisionPro does not look analogus to Google Glass at all.

Google Glass indeed is mostly an HUD and notifications kind of device along with some phone reception and video recording.

VisionPro looks to be an entirely different kind of device, with intent to experiment and introduce a new way of interacting with the computing environment.

VisionPro is also different from other AR/VR headsets in that I don't think VisionPro is trying to create and entice users into a different social realm or universe. It's looking to interact with the computing environment differently.

In a way, I see more analogy with the experiment from going to DOS text-based control of computing to mouse and graphics. It looks more like an attempt to play around with a different type of graphics/space interaction. Maybe something like this:

text-based command line : mouse/visual graphics interaction :: mouse/visual graphics interaction : graphics/space interaction

Or you could say it's going from solely 2D interaction to mixing 2D and 3D interaction...?

 

[Bustycat]

Apples version of the failed Nintendo virtual boy😂🤣

Virtual Boy was a crap from the beginning but Vision Pro should be at least usable and useful.