On February 2nd, Apple released a new product: the Apple Vision Pro. A futuristic virtual reality device with eye and hand-tracking capabilities, Apple’s headset has taken the internet by storm. Although many critics claimed sales would be slow due to the price tag of $3,500, the first batch of 200,000 has completely sold out. The Vision Pro has infiltrated even the most important moments in life, as on February 10th, a Groom wore the Vision Pro to his own wedding day.
As Apple’s first new release since the 2015 Apple Watch, the Vision Pro has a plethora of features that appear to be extremely innovative. One reviewer posted a video of him watching 5 NBA games, texting his friends, and scrolling through web pages at the same time. Apple has also stated that users can form 3-dimensional recreations of their recordings, allowing anyone to relive their own memories. With 6 microphones, 12 cameras, 5 sensors, 2 OLED displays, the M2 Chip, and Siri packed into the device, some reviewers say the Vision Pro is worth every penny.
However, many attribute Apple’s sales success to the hype of the product. Apple has an abundance of fans who will buy any product they release, no matter its true utility or value. This has led many to question whether the Apple Vision Pro provides actually helpful features. The headset takes away a substantial amount of one’s peripheral vision, and many reviews have said that it is an inherently isolating experience. Through augmented reality, a user sees the real world while maintaining access to digital features. Yet, there are reported issues such as motion blur that make it difficult to interact with the real world, unless a user is inside their home. Other than streaming from multiple sources and interacting with existing videos in new ways, the Vision Pro functionality for the consumer is questionable.
As of March 2024, Apple has a market cap of $2.774 Trillion. In the last few years, the company has spent over $20 billion in research and development and filed over 5,000 patents for the new Vision Pro. Due to its massive size as a company and its investments, Apple cannot afford to create a product just for the “tech bro” who has the excitement and funds to buy a $3,500 augmented reality device. Apple must create a product for the regular consumer. Experts say that Apple will bring down the Vision Pro’s price to make it more affordable, and forecasts for Apple’s shipment of Vision Pros (found below) are extremely ambitious. However, will it ever have the functionality to garner the interest of the average consumer?
https://wire19.com/prediction-on-apple-vision-pro-shipment-in-first-year-of-launch/ (data originally from Statista)
In my opinion, the Vision Pro does not have enough utility to be a product for 90% of American consumers. Even if the price is lower, I do not believe that Vision Pro will obtain the level of success that other Apple products have achieved, such as the iPhone, iMac, or Airpod. Past devices have allowed people to engage with the digital world without diminishing the real-world experience. Anyone can open their smartphone and in seconds, gain access to whatever content or information they desire. With most current popular Apple products, there is a low opportunity cost of losing social interaction in the real world, with massive benefits for interaction in the digital world. The Apple Vision Pro has the huge opportunity cost of losing one’s peripheral vision and casual social connection with others. Yet, some of these flaws can be ameliorated through long-term innovation. If Apple drastically simplifies the design, makes the user experience less intrusive to daily life, and lowers the price, I can see a future where augmented reality becomes the new norm.
Some questions for discussion in the comments:
What do you think about the Apple Vision Pro? Is it a step towards a utopian or dystopian society?
If you had $3,500 lying around, would you buy one?
Do you think the Apple Vision Pro could be a viable product for the consumer?
10 comments:
Personally, I agree with most of the sentiments throughout this article regarding the actual value of Apples Vision Pro's as utility for the average, finding how you mentioned that likely 90% of Americans would really never have a legitimate fiscal reason to buy this outside of "tech bros" like you mentioned in the current state of the technology. However, I do believe it is important to consider, as you mentioned, that apple is a company that continually innovates their products, and that this technology is likely to drop (hopefully) significantly in price throughout the next decade if all goes well. Additionally, although it may seem like a 100% luxury item at the moment, it does have some pretty interesting use cases, most notably in the world of sales, specifically with 3D models, as companies can show clients real life models of advanced parts, say in engineering, both in person or across the globe through sending a file that can be easily manipulated in the world of AR. On the flipside, the reality is that Americans DO spend money on luxuries as we have seen within the suburban "Keeping up with the Joneses" lifestyle still somewhat present day, as seen through people spending money on cars, PCs, new tech, etc, not just for it's utility value, but because it is nice to have.
I think that the image of everyday people walking around with VR sets on their heads leans towards the dystopian side because it will become increasingly harder for people to live in the moment/appreciate the world around them.
Personally, besides the 3D memories, I don't think that the Apple Vision Pro presents that many new innovations that would be extremely helpful. So no, I would not buy them. Additionally, I don't feel like other people would buy them because I don't know what substantial benefits it would bring to everyday people that would cause them to drop so much money on a what is essentially a VR set.
I found it interesting that you brought up despite it's lacking of relative use factors, thousands of copies have already sold out. This VR set kind of reminds me of the kind of set from "Ready Player 1," where individuals were highly engrossed to the digital world that they lost track of reality and the things actually going on in real life. To this idea, I do think that if sets like these become widely available to the public, this leans more towards the dystopian side of things.
However there are also interesting use cases for the set, such as being able to display models and figures in 3d, which can be useful in creating/engineering new technologies to some extent. I think it comes down to how sophisticated this augmented reality can actually become and the extent to its intrusions into life (as well as cost) that will be the deciding factor for the average consumer to purchase this product.
I agree with most of your ideas about the Vision Pro, especially it's relatively low utility. It seems like Apple may have overdesigned this product by including too many separate, unnecessary capabilities instead of simplifying it and simultaneously making it more accessible/affordable to the general public. Still, to me, 3D VR doesn't seem at all functional or necessary for the typical person. One possible outcome (that I hope doesn't happen) where this product actually reaches the general population would be it becoming a form of wealth signaling, where people buy it just so others know that they can.
I agree with others that this just seems too much, and there isn't a major use for virtual reality. I can remember when the first VR sets came out years ago, and how much hype was around them, until honestly it just died down. I know many people who haven't touched their VR sets in years and it just seems like the multitude of features is not needed. It additionally is at an absurd price point, which was why I was so surprised that so many have already been sold. Overall, connecting back to Leo's title, I believe this is more of a cash grab than any revolutionary technology.
I don't think the Apple Vision Pro is a viable consumer product because, for the average person, it does not really serve any necessary purpose. Beyond its lack of purpose to the average user, the price point is absurd, $3500 is almost 3 times the price of an iPhone. And to answer the question as to whether I would buy it if I had 3500 dollars, no, I would not. While I do think the idea of getting to experience using it once seems like something fun to do, I do not see myself spending 3500 dollars on it because I don't see a long-term use for it.
The Apple Vision Pros certainly remind me of the movie "Ready Player One". Right now, I don't think that the product brings enough added benefits to technology to make it worth 3.5k, or even 1k- but as this post states, Apple's pretty steadfast fanbase makes it a marketable and somewhat popular product amongst loyal customers. Furthermore, it seems like Apple has always been on a sort of revolutionary track when it comes to releasing innovative technology, but in recent years, there has been nothing astounding or truly new that will shape our society like the Iphone did in the past. Products such as an enlarged Ipad and the Apple Vision Pros (perhaps the Pros less so) seem like a pledge to continue the streak of releasing new, attractive products to customers every couple of years.
I definitely see where many people are coming from with their criticisms of the Apple Vision Pro, especially regarding its price and some lacking functionality. However, I believe that the reason Apple priced their product so highly, as opposed to the Meta Quest 3's $500 price tag (its main competitor), is for the purpose of anchoring. First of all, by making the price so high, it will tell consumers that this product is the best of the best, the luxury of virtual reality. Next, Apple will take all that it learned from this product launch and the many criticisms of the product and release a more realistically priced product (although still more expensive than Meta's alternative). This will appear to consumers that they are getting a great deal on the best possible product, when in reality, Apple simply used anchoring to make this still expensive product appear cheap (in relation to their first product).
I personally don't own an apple vision pro, but got to try one that a friend owned, and I believe that it currently is not worth the price that is tagged onto it. It is definitely cool and unlike anything else I've ever tried, but the headset is extremely heavy and it doesn't feel like something I could be wearing for an extensive amount of time. That being said, I believe that given time, not only will the price drop but the model will become more compact and easily usable at any time. I actually can see this becoming somewhat of a "normal" product given a lot of time. Take a television or phones for example. They used to be way "chunkier" than they are now, and defintely used to be considered luxery items, but now, a lot of people have them. On the other hand, phones were never 3,500 dollars...
While the technology is certainly advanced, the cost of the device and its limited use cases makes me believe that this product won’t be as revolutionary and scaled as Apple believes it to be. Meta's Quest is 1/7th the cost and with exception to its AR and hand tracking technology, is a comparable product. Maybe more advanced tech and cheaper prices will make future models more popular, however with exception to entertainment, I see very limited use cases for the product. At best, its a niche product in the Apple ecosystem. At worst, the product fails to break even, losing Apple billions of dollars in R&D cost. Then again many people said similar things about the Iphone when it first released and they were all proven wrong. Time will tell whether the Vision Pro will be a success or failure.
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