A customer tries his Vision Pro at the launch of the Apple Vision Pro at Apple The Grove in Los ... [+]
There are essentially two fundamental flaws with Virtual Reality in its current form, at least when it comes to widespread consumer adoption of the technology.
The first problem is the design. Basically every VR gadget is a headset that you have to strap awkwardly to your face. These are varying degrees of comfortable, but even the most luxurious leaves a lot to be desired. Because you have goggles strapped to your face, which is inherently uncomfortable. A lot of times these are tethered to a PC or console, but even the untethered headsets have lots of drawbacks when it comes to comfort and convenience compared to just playing games or watching movies on a normal screen.
On top of this, despite progress in this regard a lot of people still get motion sickness using VR headsets. Or headaches. Or nausea and headaches. I certainly do. The combination of just not enjoying having something strapped to my face and the physical illness I feel has basically killed VR for me. Nothing in VR is good enough to bring me back. My son plays a ton more VR than I do, but even he has been spending less and less time with his Oculus and more and more time on his PC playing Minecraft, Roblox and other games online with his friends.
The other big hurdle for VR adoption is price, though stuff like the Oculus Quest line has made it more affordable than before.
Into this reality, steps Apple—a company known for charging pretty exorbitant amounts for its fanciest devices—with the $3,500 Vision Pro VR headset, and rather shockingly it’s not selling as fast as the company had hoped.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the company had slashed its Vision Pro shipments to 400,000-450,000 units, with the market predicting 700,000–800,000 units or more. According to the report, Apple cut shipments ahead of the Vision Pro’s launch in non-U.S. markets, suggesting weak demand in the U.S.
Ming-Chi Kuo speculates that Apple is currently reviewing its Apple Vision Pro roadmap, and may no longer release a new, cheaper model in 2025. Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple now expects Vision Pro shipments to decline year-on-year in 2025.
I find this completely unsurprising. I find the notion that close to a million people would spend $3,500 on this gadget more shocking than the fact that no, actually, they won’t.
I haven’t tried the Vision Pro (I didn’t receive a review unit and I’d rather spend $3,500 on a new gaming rig) but the price-tag alone was going to kill this thing before it ever had a chance to make a splash. Maybe if this had been the first VR headset ever that price point would have made sense, but in a market with plenty of cheaper alternatives (none of which are flying off the shelves) it’s hard to imagine Apple was ever going to stick this particular landing.
Reviews didn’t help. The headset was not the most comfortable according to reviewers. Too heavy and the weight distribution was off, making it a literal pain to wear. The battery life left much to be desired, with reviewers noting that watching a movie on the Vision Pro was great, but the battery couldn’t make it through longer films. The headset also sports a puzzlingly low Field Of View (FOV) well behind most of the competition. Stack on lens glare, no motion controllers and suddenly you have a lot of unhappy customers. These sorts of issues might be okay on a $400 headset, but when you’re shelling out three-and-a-half grand, you expect the best. Then again, even a flawless headset at that price would have trouble because VR just isn’t compelling enough to justify breaking the bank.
Speaking of which, the $3,500 model only includes 256GB of storage. You’ll need to shell out $3,900 for 1TB. You could buy 9 PlayStation 5 consoles for that amount and still have some money leftover for a couple games and an extra gamepad. Of course, that’s pre-tax. And you’d better add AppleCare+—another $500, which you probably want to buy given how pricey the repairs are. It doesn’t come with a case. That’ll cost you another $200. The battery gives you maybe two hours, so grab an extra one for $200 more.Very, very few customers—even spendy Apple customers—have that kind of cash laying around for what is effectively a very expensive toy.
The vicious cycle that comes next, with sales down, is grim. If sales continue to be sluggish, support for the hardware may follow suit. There aren’t a ton of apps for the Vision Pro yet and that may not improve if the hardware doesn’t move.
Immersive video experiences, top-notch sound and crisp movie viewing all sound like neat features, but the drawbacks of VR—and the drawbacks of spending thousands of dollars—outweigh every single one of them. And really, you’ll be watching those cool movies alone. That’s another problem with VR. It’s isolating in a way that a big-screen TV is not. Even our phones can be easily shared with those around us. VR is solitary. And if Apple really is reconsidering releasing a cheaper version of the Vision Pro in 2025, things look awfully grim for the company’s first foray into virtual reality.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Until we get a Holodeck, virtual reality is a bust. It’s certainly not going mainstream in its current form, and that isn’t my inner Luddite speaking. It’s just the cold, hard truth.
