- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
Apple employees outnumbered customers at Vision Pro launch in San Francisco’s Union Square::Apple’s new Vision Pro headset drew a sparse but eager crowd to San Francisco’s Union Square on Friday, for pickups and demos.
Yeah, they’re pricing themselves out of their own market. It’s been happening for years but the recent economic shifts are making it more apparent.
The MacBook Air was $3200 (which is more like $4500 in 2024 dollars) when it was announced in 2008. Early adopters pay for the future of these things and 200,000 AVPs have already been sold.
I don’t think the MacBook Airs launch is a good comparison.
Sure there was an early adopter tax on being one of the first “thin and light” laptops, but people already know what you can use a MacBook for, there was already a large value proposition in having a MacBook, the extra cost was entirely being more portable than it’s full size counterparts. Everything you can do on a Mac, just way easier to take on the go.
I’ve read a few reviews on it, watched MKBHD’s initial review, and outside of a few demo apps they point to the vision pro having no real point to it. Which if true, then it falls in line with existing VR headsets that are a fraction of it’s cost and in a niche market, being three times the cost of your competitors is not a good position to be
That doesn’t alter the discussion around a public first launch event. Those who can readily afford it aren’t forming lines to buy it, they’re just ordering it
I’m almost thinking that Apple went too deep into AR/VR when it looked like there was a market for it. So over a year ago they knew this was dead-on-arrival. They’d already committed the R&D and all the facilities and materials for the first production run. Knowing its going to flop, and knowing they’d get only one shot to sell them, they hiked up the price to the point where they could extract the most money from diehard Apple fans before word got out it wasn’t worth it.
They sold out all 200,000 launch day units, so perhaps Apples only mistake was pricing it too low.
I speculate it is a test product to work towards ubiquitous ar glasses in the future. Basically to figure out the big problems, produce a few good apps, etc. before trying to make the true product.
It’s competing with the varjo aero, not any of the low end ar tech so it’s actually half the cost of its competitor. It’s still way too expensive for consumers, but that’s not who it’s aimed at
Valve Index+stations+controllers is 1k$
Which it doesn’t compete with at all.
I’m personally more exited for SimulaVR headset for spatial computer. Different target market though for sure
It’s almost, but nothing at all, like that.
Sounds like a good observation and analysis.
What’s yours?
I was just about to ask your opinion and why you thought my post was so toxic it deserved a downvote for a wandering thought, but your post history speaks for itself. Have a great day!