Since the release of Apple's mixed reality headset Vision Pro in the United States in February this year, Apple is promoting this product to larger overseas markets - although this may not reverse its overall dismal sales situation.
Vision Pro is now available in stores across multiple countries
This Friday, Vision Pro will be available in stores in countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Prior to this, on June 28th, the product had already been launched in stores in the Asian markets (mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore).
At present, the product has opened trial applications in overseas market stores such as the UK, and it is said that the trial applications are very popular.
For mature hardware devices like the iPhone, people can usually book them directly online without having to try them out in person. But for new products like Vision Pro, personally trying it out is crucial - Apple really needs to take advantage of the trial opportunity to convince consumers to spend thousands of dollars on its headset - which is much more expensive than other mass market headsets.
In order to promote the sales of this product in the UK, Apple CEO Cook recently gave an interview to British media and revealed that he "uses Vision Pro every day".
Bryan Ma, Vice President of International Data Corporation (IDC), stated that there is no doubt that Vision Pro is a relatively new product category that is still far from mainstream. In addition, it is also a product from Apple that is far ahead of its competitors.
The biggest challenge of Vision Pro: it's too expensive
However, the biggest challenge that Apple faces is whether it can maintain consumers' excitement about the Vision Pro in the first few weeks and translate it into sustainable sales data.
It is worth mentioning that the Vision Pro, which was released in mid last year for $3499, is currently priced quite high when it enters other countries' markets: the product is priced at £ 3499 (approximately $4516) in the UK, AUD 5999 (approximately $4058) in Australia, and € 4000 (approximately $4347) in France
IDC's Bryan Ma commented, "Considering the current ultra-high pricing of the product and the fact that its ecosystem of applications and use cases is still in the development stage, this will be very difficult
Leo Gebbie, Chief Analyst at CCS Insight, a UK market research firm, said, "Apple's Vision Pro is undoubtedly the headline news in the VR and AR markets, but to be fair, its expansion in other regional markets has not been as sensational as expected
The expected sales volume for the year has dropped to 400000
According to a report released by IDC in mid June, Meta held the top position in the global mixed/virtual reality headset market share competition in the first quarter of this year, while Apple ranked second with Vision Pro. ByteDance, Xreal and HTC also ranked in the top five.
IDC states that both Meta's Quest 3 and Apple's Vision Pro help cultivate user mindsets and attract developers to create mixed reality content that blends the digital and real worlds together... Unfortunately, this is still a premium for users, "IDC refers to the high price range of such products.
Renowned Apple analyst Guo Mingchi previously revealed that Apple has lowered its sales forecast for Vision Pro in 2024 from 700000 to 800000 units to around 400000 to 450000 units. Guo Mingchi attributed the downward revision of the shipment forecast to a decrease in demand.
IDC also made a similar prediction: "We expect Apple's shipment volume to be around 400000 units this year, with nearly half of them going to be sold outside the United States. If we start seeing hardware prices decline and application utility increase, sales growth may be even faster