PSA: If You Bought Vision Pro at Launch, Your Return Window Ends Friday

[Abazigal]

So many tech experts here who believe they're smarter than Apple. Never ceases to crack me up.

The problem with criticisms like this is what they are almost invariably short-sighted, and a sad attempt to harvest some quick and easy clicks rather than actually provide any meaningful insight.

I don't dent that change is easiest when it's just a generational one. For example, your smartphone or laptop gets more ram, faster processor or better battery life. This is easy to manage because people can just ride out the change and continue with whatever they were doing. No adjustment needed on their end.

The hard part comes when technology introduces a brand new paradigm that people are expected to embrace, and when it requires them to rewire their their brains and fundamentally change the way they do things. That’s very real and very hard and why some get uncomfortable or defensive. So much of our own sense of empowerment comes from mastery of the tools we use and changing tools can mean resetting our status in the tech hierarchy, because it means we are no longer masters of our craft but instead now on the same footing as other people less technologically-inclined than us.

I continue to be optimistic about the Vision Pro, though to be fair, I did also bet on the iPad, and am frankly a tad disappointed that it has not taken more than I had hoped it would. Nevertheless, I would credit these principles for helping me get more out of my iPad, and for successfully integrating it into my personal workflow. And if and when I do get a vision pro, I believe it will be invaluable in helping me get the most out of said device as well.

For one, many things we accept as the norm today was likely once considered weird, hard and awkward (remember when the GUI was first introduced to command-line diehards?). Imagine a world where spatial computing makes smartphone screens appear archaic and minuscule by comparison.

Most problems are solved not by doing it the old way. For instance, when my iPad didn't come with a file manager, I adapted by moving all my files to the cloud and syncing it via the documents app. The lack of ease surrounding copy and paste was addressed via a clipboard manager app (copied). I created shortcuts to automate certain troublesome processes, and the side benefit is that all these extended to my iPhone as well. Part of the beauty of the iPad is that it is not at all like a Mac, and so I didn't try to make it mimic a PC in a conventional sense but instead, identified what it excelled in, and built on those strengths.

What I am trying to say here is that the technology and the apps are already here. People complaining about how the price needs to come down or how Netflix needs to support it first are missing the point. What really needs to happen is the cultural change that will permit the technology change to happen. The mindset to be willing to take advantage of what are perceived as disadvantages.

And maybe that's why people clamour for the vision pro to sport macOS, as they did with the iPad. Everybody wants change, but nobody wants to change. And that's really the sad (though understandable) part, what more when it's coming from this forum.

 

[cardfan]

If that was the "Pro" model, I don't even want to see the non-Pro and the compromises needed to make it pencil for Apple and their standard required margins.

This is probably the non pro going forward. The gen 2 pro needs better resolution 8k at least. More ram. Better chip. More capabilities Mac wise. Etc.

 

[Realityck]

Why Some of Apple’s Biggest Fans Are Returning Their Vision Pros

The Apple Vision Pro has now been available for two weeks — and some of Apple’s most dedicated customers are returning the device to get back their $3,500. Also: Apple’s longest-serving product designer retires, and the company is making headway on its generative AI push.

www.bloomberg.com

With the Vision Pro, even some of the most loyal Apple customers have had second thoughts. By this past Friday — when the two-week return period expired for the very first Vision Pro purchases — a surprising number had turned in their headsets.

Returns are normal, and happen for all sorts of reasons. But the Vision Pro is unique. If you’ve already bought one, chances are you’re a diehard Apple fan or an early adopter of new technology. That group, one would assume, is far less likely than the normal iPhone or iPad buyer to send something back.

Apple isn’t commenting on the Vision Pro’s return rate, but data from sources at retail stores suggests that it’s likely somewhere between average and above average compared with other products — depending on the location. Some smaller stores are seeing one or two returns per day, but larger locations have seen as many as over eight take-backs in a single day.

Obviously, these aren’t large numbers, and there are stores that have had days with just one or zero returns. This stems partly from the fact that the Vision Pro is a low-volume product — something Apple expected from the start. And none of this is a sign of a crisis.

But Apple does seem interested in figuring out what’s going on. When customers return the Vision Pros, retail staffers quiz them on what went wrong. Employees have also been instructed to report to a manager after each return so that any concerns can be passed back to headquarters in Cupertino, California.

In speaking to more than a dozen people who have returned the Vision Pro over the past week, I’ve heard some similar reasons:

• The device is simply too heavy, too cumbersome to manage, headache-inducing and uncomfortable.
• The current lack of applications and video content doesn’t justify the price.
• The work features don’t make people more productive than just using an normal external monitor with a Mac — and they’re difficult to use for long periods.
• The displays have too much glare, the field of view is too narrow, and the device causes eyestrain and vision problems.
• The product can make users feel isolated from family and friends. Meaningful shared experiences don’t yet exist, and the Vision Pro can’t easily be passed around to others because of the need for a precise fit.

 

[mrBeach]

. . . Obviously, these aren’t large numbers, and there are stores that have had days with just one or zero returns. This stems partly from the fact that the Vision Pro is a low-volume product — something Apple expected from the start. And none of this is a sign of a crisis.

But Apple does seem interested in figuring out what’s going on. When customers return the Vision Pros, retail staffers quiz them on what went wrong. Employees have also been instructed to report to a manager after each return so that any concerns can be passed back to headquarters in Cupertino, California.

In speaking to more than a dozen people who have returned the Vision Pro over the past week, I’ve heard some similar reasons:

• The device is simply too heavy, too cumbersome to manage, headache-inducing and uncomfortable.
• The current lack of applications and video content doesn’t justify the price.
• The work features don’t make people more productive than just using an normal external monitor with a Mac — and they’re difficult to use for long periods.
• The displays have too much glare, the field of view is too narrow, and the device causes eyestrain and vision problems.
• The product can make users feel isolated from family and friends. Meaningful shared experiences don’t yet exist, and the Vision Pro can’t easily be passed around to others because of the need for a precise fit.

Really interesting, I thought for sure that another important return reason would have been triggering nausea and motion sickness. Really surprised that’s not even mentioned as a data point for returns.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

As much as people are gonna use this as an excuse to dunk on Apple it's just the nature of head mounted displays
Unfortunately our monkey brains don't like seeing things that are off, no matter how good tech you put in these things your brain always figures out something is up

I love my PSVR2 but I cannot use it for more than a couple of hours before my stomach starts having these weird fits. I don't feel nauseous like some people do but there's a general sense of discomfort that just won't go away until I take the thing off and rest for a while

The AVP is obviously not a VR headset so it doesn't suffer from the same problems but being a computing platform brings its own sets of challenges
Despite having best in class OLED screens the text being ever so slightfly fuzzy cannot be great for your eyes, especially if you need to add those prescription lenses on top of the already existing ones

Maybe one day the displays and the cameras will be so good our brains will actually believe there's just windows floating in our world but until then all these devices are destined to be "couple hours per day" devices, and maybe that's for the best.
I'm no luddite, I love my tech and I spend an unhealthy amount of time in front of it every single day, but I wouldn't want to be strapped to a headset 24/7 even if it's light and I can't even tell I'm looking at a camera feed.

Still, excited about spatial computing, can't wait to see where it goes from here

 

[Realityck]

Yesterday DigitalTrends came out with a bit of a rebuttal to Mark Germans article Vision Pro returns, still there are points you can't argue with.

Don’t believe the reports about people returning Vision Pros

News reports suggest users are returning Apple’s Vision Pro in droves, but is that actually true? Research suggests it’s not as big a problem as you may think.

www.digitaltrends.com

But it’s easy to see a few reports like this and think that the problem is widespread. After all, if die-hard Apple fans are sending back the headset, what must that say about people who are less committed to the Apple ecosystem?

For instance, one “senior Apple Retail employee” told AppleInsider that Vision Pro return rates were roughly in line with “not-Pro iPhone levels.” Another said that they’d only had to process two returns in a week. That doesn’t sound like an alarming level of dissatisfaction.

Still, the feedback (both from customers cited by Gurman and reviewers in general) illustrates that the Vision Pro is very much a “version 1.0” product. It provides absolutely incredible visual experiences that no other headset can match, yet is heavy, buggy and of questionable utility for its price. In other words, at the moment, it’s a product for early adopters, not the public at large.

That aptly demonstrates the pressing need for Apple to launch a second-generation Vision Pro, as well as a cheaper model, with both versions potentially solving some of the problems affecting the current device. That idea was summed up neatly by Narinder Walia, a customer quoted in Gurman’s newsletter, who said: “If the price had been $1,500 to $2,000, I would have kept it just to watch movies, but at essentially four grand, I’ll wait for version two.

There are few that wouldn't point out something very obvious like the price as a deterrent to larger acceptance.