Apple presented its glasses for augmented reality at the beginning of the year Vision Pro. It brings interesting technologies, but they also have some disadvantages. Despite the clumsy cable used to power them, they are not exactly light (they weigh as much as a large iPad, and that’s enough) and, above all, they are very expensive. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg mocks them repeatedly and has published videos on his Threads network comparing his Quest solutions against Apple’s glasses. They cost 3,500 USD, while the Quest 3 starts at 500 USD, the Quest Pro at 1,000 USD. From the beginning, Apple positioned its glasses in a different market segment. While Meta is focused on the consumer base, i.e. primarily on the consumption of VR content, Apple is marketing-wise trying to push Vision Pro more into the creative area, i.e. into content creation, work engagement and the like. Gaming and viewing content are not avoided, but they are not primary in the promotion of these glasses. The work area should have justified the high price, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
At least that’s what analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests. Although the first 200,000 units were ordered in less than two weeks, Kuo let it be known that further interest is far from what was originally expected. It was said that deliveries should amount to around 700-800 thousand units, however, according to his words, the estimates should be reduced to 400-450 thousand, which is almost half. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman goes on to say that not long ago, Apple Stores were selling a few units a day, but now they’re happy to sell a few in a week. He also adds that Apple employees themselves use the glasses less than at the beginning of the year when they were introduced. In essence, Apple has a similar problem as Meta with Zuckerberg, where Meta employees also do not want to use glasses for VR and other realities (they even force them to do so in a way). At the same time, it is beginning to be assumed that Apple will push back (or possibly cancel) the planned launch of a cheaper model that was expected next year.
It thus appears once again that these glasses (both from Apple and Meta, and VR in general) in principle still do not solve a significant problem well enough in their current form, and that is why they are rather forced to find a way to actually use them. Anyway, the Meta is supposed to be doing a bit better with sales, and Quest 2 alone is said to have sold over 20 million so far (which is in the same tens as game consoles), however, it’s still rumored that headset sales per year 2023 fell by a significant 40%.
