You have to feel bad for the the Bloomberg News folks. They try so hard to make everything they write about Apple sound like a low key speech at an economics forum where everyone is half asleep. So it goes with the Vision Pro, the XR headset that took up a whole WWDC last year, and popularized the term spatial computing. Maybe not popularized, but forced writers like me to have to use it.
Well, it seems that the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro has experienced slow sales since its US launch in February, failing to sell 100,000 units in a quarter. Sales are expected to drop by 75% domestically this quarter, according to what IDC told Bloomberg, which wants to believe the recent international launch will offset this weakness, but then hedges on significant sales growth after the release of a rumored half-priced model in 2025. Bloomberg says that the Initial reviews were mixed for the Vision; we say that they were damning.
IDC tells Bloomberg that sales should double with the new half-price model, but is that really a realization of the dream for Apple. The technology on the Vision Pro is certainly impressive and the price was justified on the basis of the quality of the tech and the device. It turned out to be just as heavy and uncomfortable as any other XR or VR headset which probably shattered the illusion that Apple had really delivered a spatial computing device. Turns out, everyone looks weird in these headsets, and no one likes wearing them for any lenght of time, and they all complain about the lack of content or applications.
Maybe the price is not the real issue here, and Apple should rethink what it hopes to achieve. Yes, adoption for some other Apple products were slow, too, but they were launched at a time when Apple had less reach and clout then they do now. Vision Pro has benefited from the full weight of Apple’s retail distribution and the support of its stores. If that’s not making sales happen is it really because of price?
