Looking to revive the buzz of the early iPhone days, Apple’s hoping its new US$3,499 mixed reality headset will do the trick.
Driving the news: Apple’s long-awaited Vision Pro headset is now available for pre-order in the U.S., marking the tech giant's entry into its first new product category in nearly a decade. Apple is betting that the headset will bring augmented and virtual reality into the mainstream.
- Many headsets on the market right now are designed mostly for gaming, but the Vision Pro can be used for watching movies, FaceTiming, and even for work.
- Apple has set its sights on the enterprise space, pitching the headset as a portable monitor that companies can use to host virtual meetings and conduct training.
Why it matters: While the Vision Pro has largely impressed those who have tested it out, Apple’s banking that the headset’s bells and whistles will be enough to get consumers to pay a lot for an AR/VR experience that, so far, hasn’t generated that much widespread interest.
- Meta’s Quest headsets have struggled to pick up traction, with one report suggesting that over half of the people who bought one stopped using it after six months.
- The US$3,499 price tag could certainly be a deterrent given that you could buy a MacBook Air, iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch for less than the Vision Pro.
Big picture: Apple’s advantage compared to other developers is that a lot of the apps like Apple TV and Apple Music that run on the headset are already hugely popular. If Apple can’t figure out how to use the best of the iPhone’s and iPad’s features to bring AR/VR into the mainstream, it’s hard to imagine another company that could.—LA