Apple’s (AAPL) Vision Pro is coming. And such. The company announced Monday that it will begin taking pre-orders for the headset starting at 8 a.m. on January 19, and that it will officially arrive in the company’s online and brick-and-mortar stores in the United States on February 2.
But this isn’t just any product launch. This is Apple’s first new product category in nearly 10 years. It last leapt into a new industry segment with the Apple Watch in 2015. But there is a big difference between the Vision Pro and the Apple Watch, other than the fact that one wears on your wrist and the other on your face.
Apple Watch was released at a time when fitness trackers and smartwatches were already well-established products. Fitbit was a household name when the Apple Watch launched, and people couldn’t stop talking about tracking their steps.
But the AR/VR headset space is still largely untested, with Meta’s (META) Quest line of devices being the market leader. And consumers don’t seem to be as addicted to these headphones as Meta had hoped.
In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that more than half of Meta Quest headset owners did not use their device just six months after purchasing it. According to The Verge, Meta’s VP of VR, Mark Rabkin, noted at a February 2023 employee meeting that user interest in the company’s Quest 2 headset was specifically flagged.
But Apple also has a powerful weapon that Meta doesn’t: a large number of service subscribers with access to Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. And that alone could give Apple the kind of head start on Meta it needs to dominate the AR/VR headset industry.
“Apple is entering a market that hasn’t made much meaningful progress in recent years,” IDC research analyst Ramon Llamas told Yahoo Finance. “But you know…wherever Apple goes, markets tend to go up.”
Apple is entering an unproven market
Apple’s Vision Pro headset, or spatial computing as the company calls it, will test the company’s ability to keep consumers interested in a product category that still seems like an answer to a question.
So far, one of the main reasons consumers are choosing AR/VR headsets has been gaming. But even these experiences are far from mind-blowing. I’d rather game on my PlayStation 5 and 65-inch OLED TV than any headset. Wearing a headset for more than half an hour can be uncomfortable, the PS5’s graphics are far superior to what any headset can produce, and some games don’t translate well to the headset’s form factor.
“People aren’t playing ‘Fortnite’ with a headset,” said Julie Ask, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. “They play it on their computers because it’s so fast and the graphics are so good.”
AR/VR companies are also moving more into the enterprise space; Meta offers its headset as a tool for holding meetings where you can interact with your colleagues in virtual spaces.
But let’s be realistic. It’s hard enough to have to turn on your laptop camera for a virtual meeting. So the idea that the average person would willingly put on their headset to attend another meeting is a bit hard to accept.
That doesn’t mean headphones can’t help when it comes to productivity. Using these as a means of viewing multiple windows and applications on a giant virtual screen would be much better than trying to see all my work on a single laptop screen.
In fact, Apple demonstrated the ability to use the Vision Pro as a kind of high-power virtual display during a tech demo at WWDC in June. But it’s hard to imagine the average consumer dropping $3,499 on a larger screen.
Apple’s services may be the secret to Vision Pro’s success
Gaming and enterprise capabilities are sure to be part of Apple’s formula for success for the Vision Pro, but the company’s secret weapon is its services business and the countless offerings it entails.
“[Apple has] “It’s a flexible base that’s already subscribed to media services,” Ask said. “If I could instantly start watching movies and doing all this other stuff, Apple has games… they’ve got movies and TV shows and they’re compatible with my computer and my smartphone and all these other things, I wouldn’t have to go No need to buy game titles one by one and build a library.
Being able to view your existing apps, movies, photos, and more on the Vision Pro will be a powerful feature for Apple as it tries to convince users that they need an AR/VR headset.
Apple’s army of app developers should also prove extremely useful in driving interest in the Vision Pro. After all, no one really realized how powerful the iPhone would be until Apple launched the App Store and allowed third-party apps on the smartphone. Having more developers develop for Vision Pro will definitely be huge.
There’s also the ease of use factor. While other headsets require you to learn how to use separate controllers and navigate new operating systems, the Vision Pro is relatively simple. Your eyes act as a sort of cursor, highlighting whatever you’re looking at in an app. To select an item, simply tap your index finger and thumb together. It’s that easy.
There will definitely be a learning curve for some apps and features, but it will be extremely helpful if you can dive into the world of Vision Pro and start using it right away.
All that said, it will take some time for Apple to get major traction from the Vision Pro. It’s still a pretty expensive device for most consumers. As Llamas explains, you’ll be able to buy MacBook Air, iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch for less than the Vision Pro. But if there’s one company that’s going to take AR/VR into motion, it’ll be Apple.
Daniel Howley He is the technology editor of Yahoo Finance. He has been interested in the technology sector since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter. @DanielHowley.
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