If they want to cut down costs instead of just cutting the price and making not as much profit

then they could make these changes (just looking through the official specs on their site) which I feel would be a good compromise:
* Plastic build
* 90Hz display only
* stick with M2. the idea of offloading processing to iPhone is silly. It'll drain batteries very fast. Keep M4/5 for the next Pro model.
* perhaps don't include a battery at all. of course you could buy one if you want as an optional addition but stock config would come with only a usb c cable to plug into the wall or their mac.
* no dual loop headband
* maybe cut down the tracking cameras and microphones. they might be able to get good results with less?
* add a touch id sensor instead of using iris scanning. i don't know exactly how that tech works but i'm sure a touch ID sensor would be cheaper, right?
* Stick with WiFi 6 or only move to 6E instead of 7.
* do a ~1440p resolution display.
* manual lens adjustment
* no front display but obviously keep pass through camera. put an LED or something on the outside for people to know if you can see them or not.
* add support for glasses
with all that they can save money. if they want these headsets to be a success they need to accept lower profits for now to get the ball rolling.
make it less of a hassle for people to actually buy one. having to measure your face, go to a store, and buy expensive prescription lenses is just too much trouble. you want people to have as little barrier as possible between them and your product and make it more of an impulse/exciting and easy choice to make.
and of course...show off a good reason to actually buy the headset. connecting to your mac and watching movies is cool but it's not $3,500 or even $1,000 cool. I want a headset to be a complete replacement for my iPhone/Mac/iPad. Mostly iPhone. Imagine not having to carry a phone with you and having everything right infront of you. You want your product to be a success then this has to happen. People are addicted to social media/scrolling through tiktok etc. Look around and you'll see people staring down at their phones. What if all the stuff on your phone was easily accessible right infront of your eyes? I feel quite bad suggesting it but this is a way to get people hooked on your product. It's dystopian as hell but I could see so many people buying a headset if they could watch tiktok/youtube etc 24/7 without as much as effort.