Every article about AVP gets spammed with comments that it can’t possibly succeed with such an unaffordable price. But while it definitely seems high, is it truly ‘unaffordable’?
I suspect for most people (myself included), it is not truly unaffordable in the sense of being a literally impossible purchase. Clearly many typical Apple customers can and do spend such sums of money on many things in life - for instance, $3500 would be considered a fantastical bargain for things such as housing, transportation, education, health care coverage, etc. by most of us. But it is definitely a very daunting amount for a discretionary expense. If I bought one, and found I didn’t really use it or like it, that $3500 would be a very painful mistake and would probably mean regrettable sacrifices elsewhere for most people. However, if it ended up being even a fraction as beneficial to my life as say, my vehicle (which costs far more to purchase and operate), I’d be thrilled with the price.
So to ground my perception a bit, I’ve gone back and considered the introductory (base models only) prices of some of the significantly innovative Apple (and non-Apple) products over the years. I used this web site to adjust for inflation and normalize everything to 2024 dollars for comparison:
Easily calculate how the buying power of the U.S. dollar has changed from 1913 to 2023. Get inflation rates and U.S. inflation news.
www.usinflationcalculator.com
Apple 1 (one of the first consumer market home computers, and obviously the start of Apple): $666.66 in 1976 = $3,563.26 in 2024.
Apple II (one of the first generation mass consumer market computers and Apple’s first major product): $1298 in 1977 = $6,514.14 in 2024.
Apple /// (Apple‘s first ’business’ class product): $4340 in 1980 = $16,018.34 in 2024.
Apple Profile (Apple’s first hard drive, with 5 MB of storage): $3499 in 1981 = $11,706.71 in 2024.
Apple Lisa (first commercially available GUI computer): $9995 in 1983 = $30,519.57 in 2024.
Macintosh (the computer for the rest of us…): $2495 in 1984 = $7,303.15 in 2024.
Mac II (first ’business’ class Mac): $5498 in 1987 = $14,719.10 in 2024.
Macintosh Portable (first Mac laptop): $7300 in 1989 = $17,904.25 in 2024.
Mac IIFX (first real graphics power house Mac): $8969 in 1990 = $20,870.05 in 2024.
Power Mac 6100/60 (first RISC based Mac, cheapest version): $1820 in 1994 = $3,734.89 in 2024.
iMac (Apple’s return to ‘consumer’ priced products when Jobs came back): $1299 in 1998 = $2,423.69 in 2024.
Newton Message Pad 100 (first PDA): $900 in 1993 = $1,894.22 in 2024.
iPod (Apple’s first music player, held 1000 songs, put Apple in the mainstream): $399 in 2001 = $685.57 in 2024.
iPhone (put the internet everywhere, put Apple on top, defined smartphones): $499 in 2007 = $731.93 in 2024.
and some key non Apple products:
Other first generation hobbyist, home, and business personal computers:
Altair 8800: $621 in 1975 = $3,510.46 in 2024.
Radio Shack TRS-80: $599.95 in 1977 = $3,010.91 in 2024.
Commodore PET: $795 in 1977 = $3,989.78 in 2024.
Atari 400: $550 in 1979 = $2,303.99 in 2024.
Texas Instruments 99/4: $1150 in 1979 = $4,817.44 in 2024.
IBM PC: $1565 in 1981 = $5,236.07 in 2024.
Other early generation ‘personal’ digital electronics:
HP 9100A (desktop programmable calculator - first ‘personal computer’): $5000 in 1968 = $43,696.41 in 2024.
HP 35 (first pocket scientific calculator): $395 in 1972 = $2,873.93 in 2024.
Texas Instruments 59 (programmable pocket calculator): $300 in 1977 = $2,873.93 in 2024.
Hamilton Pulsar P1 (first electronic digital watch): $2100 in 1972 = $15,279.11 in 2024
and finally, some other premium VR products:
Microsoft HoloLens: $3000 in 2016 = $3,801.48 in 2024.
Microsoft HoloLens 2 (probably best regarded prior to Vision Pro): $3500 in 2019 = $4,163.56 in 2024.
VPL Research (the company that coined the term ‘virtual reality’): $250,000 in 1989 = $613,159.27 in 2024. - I was fortunate enough to get to try a demo of one of these as a student in 1992. It took two Silicon Graphics workstations to render then images and a top of the line Mac to run the virtual environment. It was absolutely amazing in its day and I was convinced would be the future for graphics oriented computer work someday, but the price was obviously beyond comprehension. Been waiting for this day ever since - $3500 is a whole different discussion than $600k…
So, what does all that mean for the price of Vision Pro? Obviously, it’s still very expensive as a personal electronics item. Affordable I suppose depends on relative to what.
But considering that it can do absolutely everything that all of the above listed items could do (with the exception of fitting in your pocket or on your wrist), can do it much better in most cases, and can do things far beyond what any of those other items can do, yet at a normalized price that is far less in most cases, it seems likely that it is priced to sell at least as well as almost all of the above.
So, given the ground breaking nature of the above listed products and the ground breaking nature of Vision Pro, I have to admit $3500 is probably a price point at which it can be quite successful.
Still wish it was cheaper… :-(
