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Apple’s $3499 Vision Pro was to have revived a moribund AR/VR/XR market with a (relatively) sleek design, state-of-the-art optics and the type of savvy marketing that only Apple can provide. Yet, early indications would have you believing that the “spatial computer,” as the company calls their mixed-reality headset, is not living up to expectations.
With less than expected sales and perhaps more than expected returns, Apple has slashed forecasts and scuttled plans for a design refresh, according to industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
There were earlier signs of a product in trouble. A Bloomberg report published February 18, a little more than two weeks after the Vision Pro was introduced customers were unhappy with the headsets and were returning them within the two-week refund window. There were many early adopters and Apple fans that are keeping the products and the ones who returned it may have just intended to get a free trial, but Bloomberg says employees at Apple stores said returns were “average to above average” for a new Apple product with some of the biggest stores accepting as many as 8 returns a day.
Now Kuo reports that Vision Pro shipments were 400,000 to 450,000, about half of the expected 700,000 to 800,000 and that Apple no longer plans to have a new Vision Pro model in the 2nd half of next year. The report, published on Medium, unconfirmed by Apple, has been picked up by every tech pub under the sun with no fact-checking, is being seized upon as a sure sign of a bust.
Still the Apple faithful cling to the brand, including the Bloomberg reporter who wrote his report on a Vision Pro and vows to not return it.
Let’s see how this plays out.