On January 9th, the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily reported that seven months after its launch, Apple's Vision Pro will officially go on sale.
On the evening of January 8th, Apple announced on its official website that its first hybrid reality (MR) headset display device, Apple Vision Pro, will be released in the United States on February 2nd. Product bookings will begin at 5am on January 19th (21:00 Beijing time).
In terms of price, the starting price of the Apple Vision Pro is $3499, equivalent to approximately RMB 25000, equipped with 256GB of storage space - which is not a low price among mass consumer electronics products.
Since the first public release of the Vision Pro in June 2023, Apple has been busy preparing for the launch of this device. One important step is to establish a laboratory for developers to get started using this product and test and optimize the apps that are compatible with it.
Several testers who have participated in Apple's Shanghai laboratory expressed their joy at the user experience of this device.
A tester from Chengdu, who is also the developer of Vision Pro, told a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that "this is a product for the next era", including virtual keyboards, eye tracking, speech recognition and other spatial interaction methods, as well as a viewing experience of video perspective (VST).
But not all participants are so optimistic. A tester from Shanghai who is also a practitioner in the XR industry told Sci Tech Innovation Board Daily that overall, Vision Pro is far ahead in all aspects of software and hardware, but it is still a bit heavy to wear and lacks comfort, which may vary from person to person.
The experiencer expressed concern that comfort issues could become a major obstacle to the success of Vision Pro in office and movie scenes. The device's current focus is mainly on video, productivity, and casual gaming, and the lack of ecosystem is also a major issue. Therefore, he remains cautious and optimistic.
Vision Pro will first be released to the United States, and key markets for Apple products such as China and Europe are not covered. In addition, considering the high price of $3499, newcomers, digital enthusiasts, professionals, and high net worth users will be among the first to eat the crab, and ordinary consumers may not be able to easily afford it. The latter will precisely determine the final market penetration of Vision Pro.
In terms of shipment volume, Apple has not released specific data. Guo Minggui, an analyst at Tianfeng International, previously predicted that the shipment volume of Vision Pro in 2024 would be approximately 500000 units.
The Shanghai practitioners mentioned above believe that such prices and shipment volumes mean that the current Apple Vision Pro may not be able to expand in the market. However, with high net worth users leading the way, Apple has always been a useful way to establish a good brand and product strength. To imagine the iPhone becoming as popular as smartphones, Apple will also launch a series of affordable versions of Vision Pro in the future.
Apple clearly has high hopes for this device. Yesterday evening, Apple CEO Tim Cook immediately posted a dynamic on social media platform X, with a caption stating that "the era of spatial computing has arrived.".
Against the backdrop of declining sales of Apple's basic iPhone, Apple hopes to inject confidence into the capital market with Vision Pro. The opening information of the new product has indeed boosted some confidence in Apple's recent continuous decline in stock price - as of the close of the US stock market on the 8th, Apple rose 2.4% to $185.56 per share, with a latest market value of $2886 billion.