New Book Details Vision Pro's Troubled Launch in Apple Stores

[joshwithachance]

I'm truly BAFFLED that Apple thought there was a legitimate, wider market for this thing.

It's a $3500 tech demo with no MUST HAVE apps or features to the general consumer...

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

FWIW this runs contrary to my personal experience. I went to day 1 demos of both the Apple Watch and AVP. The Apple Watch demo was laced with inaccuracies and frustration by the employee. I actually had to correct/train them on how to use the watch based simply on the videos Apple had previously released. Contrast this to my AVP demo which was filled with enthusiasm and patient, accurate guidance.

I’ve been an Apple Watch users since day 1, but I bought and returned my AVP because the product was lacking, not because it was poorly demoed.

Yeah, I have no idea what this article is going on about.
It talks about how the transition from Steve to Tim took away the retail experience, but then mentions that Angela Ahrendts was “Jobs like”, and she was there throughout most of the 2010s directly after the Steve to Tim transition meaning that all of those retail changes were under her leadership as well.
Also, the initial Apple Watch retail push, trying to turn the Apple stores into “town squares” and Apple into a fashion company, were widely seen as a failure by Apple enthusiasts who were around during that time.

 

[radioflyer]

I don’t believe I’m alone in this but I absolutely loathe going to an Apple Store now. They’re arrogant and sometimes extremely defensive when there’s an issue with a product. One of my iPhones wouldn’t keep a steady focus. It would constantly switch between lenses and the guy was arguing with me that it’s normal. When he saw my face of disbelief he double down and told me I must not be used to it having upgraded from my previous iPhone 😂

 

[turbineseaplane]

I don’t believe I’m alone in this but I absolutely loathe going to an Apple Store now. They’re arrogant and sometimes extremely defensive when there’s an issue with a product. One of my iPhones wouldn’t keep a steady focus. It would constantly switch between lenses and the guy was arguing with me that it’s normal. When he saw my face of disbelief he double down and told me I must not be used to it having upgraded from my previous iPhone 😂

100% ... I avoid them for anything other than trying the products, as nowhere else lets you hold the phones unencumbered.

Even trying the products gets you some staff nagging you every few minutes "just checking in with you? any questions!?"

"Yes" .. "My question is why won't you please leave me alone? You're the 4th staff member to hound me in the last 11 minutes"

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

yet apple's most ardent fans, claim commercial success was never the intent, that this was a halo device, or that it was meant to show what you could do, etc.

I mean, both things can be true at the same time.
The Vision Pro itself was never meant to be a big seller, it literally couldn’t be. Apple could not produce as many units as they could sell if it was as big as the iPhone. Saying “it flopped” because it didn’t sell the same number of units as an iPhone or Apple Watch is just a silly argument to make, it’s been well known for years now that Apple could only make less than 1 million units a year.

However, it was clearly supposed to be a market mover, as in it existing would create more interest in other products just like it, and I think it’s safe to say two years later that that *has not* happened. We are no closer to an augmented reality/virtual reality future than we were in 2023 and the Vision Pro’s existence has not had the butterfly effect they were hoping it would.

 

[Nekronos]

Yep, the $1 thing isn't uncommon in large corps; it's just a tax thing. They have company cars, company jets, company credit card for meals and stock out the wazoo. They don't need a salary.

While salary is often not the highest form of compensation, $1 salary is actually quite rare for executives.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I don’t believe I’m alone in this but I absolutely loathe going to an Apple Store now. They’re arrogant and sometimes extremely defensive when there’s an issue with a product. One of my iPhones wouldn’t keep a steady focus. It would constantly switch between lenses and the guy was arguing with me that it’s normal. When he saw my face of disbelief he double down and told me I must not be used to it having upgraded from my previous iPhone 😂

I don't *get the Apple Store now. Haven't been for about a year, but there is no place one goes when walking in. You kinda just wait for someone to approach you, then they tell you to go stand at a particular table.. The genius counter was replaced with weird artsy chairs that are giant wooden blocks, and strange footstools.

My local store doesn't have a front door, either. Both sides, mall, and the outside, have equally giant doors, and there is a partition between the front (outside) 1/3 of the store, and the 2/3 on the mall side. It's really odd.

FWIW this runs contrary to my personal experience. I went to day 1 demos of both the Apple Watch and AVP. The Apple Watch demo was laced with inaccuracies and frustration by the employee. I actually had to correct/train them on how to use the watch based simply on the videos Apple had previously released. Contrast this to my AVP demo which was filled with enthusiasm and patient, accurate guidance.

I’ve been an Apple Watch users since day 1, but I bought and returned my AVP because the product was lacking, not because it was poorly demoed.

I did the demo a month or so after it was released, and the woman was knowledgable enough, but clearly bored. I ended up getting a serious case of motion sickness and was ready to end it, but it was already over. Couldn't even look at a regular TV across the room for the next hour or two without wanting to throw up.

 

[lepetitnicolas]

I had 2 demos of the Vision Pro in an Apple Store. One was with an employee who cared about it, he was with me during all the demo, was super well trained, I was lucky enough that there was almost no customers in the store at that time. It was a dream. At the end I understood why the Vision Pros cost this price and based on the experience I just got it felt not too expensive (my bank account did disagree of course). I suspected he was with Apple since a long time and asked him about that at the end and no surprise he was an Apple employee for more almost 20 years. Then some weeks later I went back to the same Apple Store because the first demo was so good I wanted to experience it again. This time I the store was packed with customers and I ended up squeezed with 8 people on a table made for 5 or 6. The Apple employee didn't care at all about Vision Pro, rushed the setup, we almost all got incorrect face adapters (it did hurt my nose it was a pain) and during the demos the employee was half of the time on his iPhone looking at his personal Facebook page and the other half he asked us to do things in the Vision Pro and because he didn't care explaining what we were suppose to see all the other customers didn't found the things he was talking about. As a result he was using his demo iPad (which controls what we see in the Vision Pro demo) to just jump to the next demo. It was the crappiest experience ever. At the end I still felt the Vision Pro was great because I thought about the 1st demo I had some weeks ago. I talked to the other customers around the table and for them it was their first time trying the Vision Pro they all had the same conclusion : it's a piece of crap, it hurts, it's way overpriced, you have to be dumb to spend money on that we don't even understand what the use of it could be ????
I was so sad that they couldn't experience a demo like the 1st one I had. If they would have experienced the same demo it would have changed their lives and they would think the Vision Pro is great.
At the end of the day you can have the best technology ever.... if the human does not connect with it then it's just an other piece of crap.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I was so sad that they couldn't experience a demo like the 1st one I had. If they would have experienced the same demo it would have changed their lives and they would think the Vision Pro is great.
At the end of the day you can have the best technology ever.... if the human does not connect with it then it's just an other piece of crap.

Unfortunately, even if you'd bought it and enjoyed it for a bit, you'd likely end up shelving it due to the lack of content and support. This is a commonly reported outcome and it usually takes more than the return period to figure it out.

You honestly got saved from spending $3500 and likely losing at least $1k trying to resell it later.

 

[stocklen]

Not price alone. You can spend more than $3,500- on a MacBook Pro or Mac Studio. And enough people do spend that much on a MacBook Pro or Mac Studio. A single Mac Studio XDR Display is also not far off this price.

The problem was not having enough compelling use cases to justify the price.

With a MacBook Pro, Mac Studio or XDR Studio Display, people know (or should know) exactly why they are buying it, and they can justify the cost against their use-case. There was never such a use-case established for the Vision Pro.

$3,500- is not an excessive amount of money for a piece of professional equipment. It is an excessive amount of money for a toy or curiosity. The Vision Pro's problem is that it (at least so far), has never gotten beyond being a toy / curiosity.

It's NOT an essential piece of kit.

This is pretty much it.

Its a very expensive device and in my opinion doesnt really do anything that commands that level of cost.

With MacBook Pros and XDR displays they are deliberately aimed at professionals with demanding workflows who need the extra processing power to do their jobs effectively and are happy to pay more for the privilege. There are also lower cost alternatives for the 'everyman' available in Apple's lineup

Pitching a device with no real USP at that level is all very well... but calling it a 'pro' doesnt really help as it still doesnt do anything unique or useful.

The reality is, if people are being really honest, the majority of people who parted with 3,500 admit that it mostly sits on the shelf gathering dust and thats a real shame.

All that said, I have to say that even if the headset were around 1,000 and potentially more people had bought it - although there might be more software available as developers would be more inclined to create apps for it given the bigger user base - I still dont see something of that nature being a regularly used piece of tech.

 

[I7guy]

What was apples sales targets? Maybe it was 400,000 units. It certainly wasn’t a flop based on what Apple learned.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

What was apples sales targets? Maybe it was 400,000 units. It certainly wasn’t a flop based on what Apple learned.

I think mindshare and enthusiasm was what they wanted, and they absolutely did not get that.

 

[Nekronos]

Insanely, insanely misleading.
Steve owned tons of Apple stock, even got into some legal trouble for his stock practices, and had a net worth of $10.2 billion at the time of his death, almost entirely generated during his time as Apple CEO.
Not trying to get political here, so please don’t take what I’m about to say as a political statement on my opinion, because it’s not, it’s just the objective truth. Saying Steve only made one dollar a year as CEO is just as misleading as saying our current president makes zero dollars as president because he gives his presidential stipend away. It’s obviously not true..

Poorly worded perhaps but representing his net worth, comprised primarily of unrealized gains, as generated as if comparable to income is misleading as well.

Yep. Income is not the same as salary.

Unrealized gains from stock is also not income.

 

[Chet-NYC]

I was an Expert at a NYC Apple Store during the Vision Pro launch and pretty much everything I read here is just not true. Yes, a couple of my colleagues went to Cupertino to learn about the product. They said they were given multiple chances to use the AVP to learn the demo script, etc.

Once back at the store, they taught the Pros and Experts first all about the device, and then we all turned that knowledge over to the Specialists. The last people to actually get to demo the device were the managers.

The launch we had had only one problem: too much interest. The demo appointments in February were absolutely full up most of the time. I can remember selling TWO AVPs to a customer- an engineer- one day- almost $9000 sale with various accessories that he bought as well.

Did we have problems in things like the eyeglass reader? Yea- once. One day, the battery was dead that powered it. That took a whole two minutes to fix. Did we have setup problems? The first couple days, things took a bit longer for Backstage to set up demo units- that also got fixed within a day or so.

I'm convinced that articles and books like this just seek out anyone who has any story that creates a bad image. If they had interviewed me, they never would've used a word. Because I experienced the launch in real time as an Apple employee, and overall, it was just fine...and quite exciting.

 

[I7guy]

I think mindshare and enthusiasm was what they wanted, and they absolutely did not get that.

IMO, they did get mind share, but it’s still expensive.

 

[code-m]

the mystery of the $3500 device with no specialized content

but sure, better sales people would have totally turned it around and made it sell on par with the $400-500 Apple Watch, why not

(note: I still believe spatial computing will be a thing, just not sure when, by whom, and in what exact form factor)

AVP is not like any other Apple product that one could easily pick it up and begin using it. One has to customize AVP to head shape for band size, weight, then prescription or not and familiarize with the UX/UI environment. Plus factor in it’s not as mobile as a phone, tablet, watch or even a laptop and one can see why it has not caught on along with the price deterrence.

My partner and I tried AVP for the first time, partner felt some motion sickness, I felt the demo experience was limiting. The dino demo was cool along with the immersion video demo but the lack of other sensory feedback didn’t make it emerging. No bass to vibrate your body, the video camera limitations were notable especially in the NYC aerial view, immersion was a bit too close to experience environment for me as it felt a little too close and limiting (I felt a bit of a wider view would be better). When looking at my arms I can see a halo or glow effect which limited the believability of the experience.

At this price point it doesn’t seem polished enough for me.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I was an Expert at a NYC Apple Store during the Vision Pro launch and pretty much everything I read here is just not true. Yes, a couple of my colleagues went to Cupertino to learn about the product. They said they were given multiple chances to use the AVP to learn the demo script, etc.

Once back at the store, they taught the Pros and Experts first all about the device, and then we all turned that knowledge over to the Specialists. The last people to actually get to demo the device were the managers.

The launch we had had only one problem: too much interest. The demo appointments in February were absolutely full up most of the time. I can remember selling TWO AVPs to a customer- an engineer- one day- almost $9000 sale with various accessories that he bought as well.

Did we have problems in things like the eyeglass reader? Yea- once. One day, the battery was dead that powered it. That took a whole two minutes to fix. Did we have setup problems? The first couple days, things took a bit longer for Backstage to set up demo units- that also got fixed within a day or so.

I'm convinced that articles and books like this just seek out anyone who has any story that creates a bad image. If they had interviewed me, they never would've used a word. Because I experienced the launch in real time as an Apple employee, and overall, it was just fine...and quite exciting.

So, given that (thank you for sharing), what's your analysis on why the product has failed so hard in the market?

 

[StuBeck]

so basically this ignores the price point.

That, surely, is by far the number 1 reason for its poor sales.

I very much doubt that most customers who walked into a store who had not already pre-determined that they were able and willing to part with 3,500 were swayed either way by a staff members demo.

Yep, and all the other issues AR has had with the market place. This seems like there is another agenda at play, as a sales experience isn't going to stop someone from buying this or not. The fact Apple themselves couldn't figure out how to make it work on employees faces shows there was also deep engineering issues at play too.

 

[LincolnBio]

We are no closer to an augmented reality/virtual reality future than we were in 2023 and the Vision Pro’s existence has not had the butterfly effect they were hoping it would.

This was also when the "Metaverse" was being touted as the next big thing, and look what happened there. I think there was a time a few years ago when AR/VR seemed like "the future" of tech (and perhaps it still will be, who knows), and Apple bet on it with the Vision Pro. Unfortunately, it turned out that AI was actually the next big thing, not VR/AR, and so Apple was stuck with an expensive product that failed to capture the market share they wanted, and found themselves lagging behind with Siri.

 

[maflynn]

I mean, both things can be true at the same time.
The Vision Pro itself was never meant to be a big seller, it literally couldn’t be. Apple could not produce as many units as they could sell if it was as big as the iPhone. Saying “it flopped” because it didn’t sell the same number of units as an iPhone or Apple Watch is just a silly argument to make, it’s been well known for years now that Apple could only make less than 1 million units a year.

That is what I meant by my earlier post where some folks cannot accept that Apple laid an egg with the AVP.

No I don't believe both can be true from my earlier statements. Apple had intended this to be succesful commercially and it wasn't. No amount of rewriting history or making excuses as the true intent of apple will change that. They're not going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on product just so it can be a Proof of Concept or something to show what can be done to the public.

Apple was full on wanting to this to be another iPhone industry changing product, instead they failed.

 

[turbineseaplane]

They're not going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on product just so it can be a Proof of Concept or something to show what can be done to the public.

This is the key point (a brilliant one) and the "tell" here.

Tim Cook, as cost, efficiency and margin obsessed as he is, would never spend like this to publicly push out essentially a tech demo.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

This was also when the "Metaverse" was being touted as the next big thing, and look what happened there. I think there was a time a few years ago when AR/VR seemed like "the future" of tech (and perhaps it still will be, who knows), and Apple bet on it with the Vision Pro. Unfortunately, it turned out that AI was actually the next big thing, not VR/AR, and so Apple was stuck with an expensive product that failed to capture the market share they wanted, and found themselves lagging behind with Siri.

And it hasn’t exactly been proven that AI is the future of a “product” either.
There are some uses sure, but we have not seen a product take off that is purely possible due to its AI capabilities.
OpenAI has been promising something for a year now, but they… Announced a thing, but didn’t show it, and then got sued, and now it looks like that thing might not actually launch until 2027 or 2028 if at all.
And obviously, we have seen things like the Rabbit and Humane Pin come and go quicker than a G4 Cube sat in the summer sun.

 

[turbineseaplane]

And it hasn’t exactly been proven that AI is the future of a “product” either.
There are some uses sure, but we have not seen a product take off that is purely possible due to its AI capabilities.
OpenAI has been promising something for a year now, but they… Announced a thing, but didn’t show it, and then got sued, and now it looks like that thing might not actually launch until 2027 or 2028 if at all.
And obviously, we have seen things like the Rabbit and Humane Pin come and go quicker than a G4 Cube sat in the summer sun.

At least with AI and/or smarter assistants, we can see some very helpful real world use cases.

 

[kaycrystal626]

Apple haven't learn. If you launch a product that's out of reach for average consumers, it's gonna flop. Professionals will not buy this thing to do work!

 

[cateye]

Having done the demo with an employee who seemed well-prepared and rehearsed for the experience, my only take away was: This is what people are losing their minds about? I didn't find it interesting at all. It had all the stupid over-promise of an IMAX movie, like eye-candy for the easily amused.

The VP's failure, and presumed eventual cancelling and relegation to the dustbin of technology, may have been accelerated by a degraded AppleStore experience, but I notice no one is pointing a finger at iPhone, Mac, or iPad sales being "harmed" similarly. It's a bad product, and bad products will fail regardless of hype machine histrionics.