We've known about the Vision Pro for more than half a year (not to mention years of rumors), but Apple's first “spatial computing” device is one of the biggest questions in consumer electronics heading into the new year. The $3,499 headphones were given a release timeframe of “early 2024” when they were unveiled at WWDC in June, but since then, the company hasn't been more specific.
Apple Oracle Ming-Chi Kuo offered an early holiday gift on December 24, narrowing what he believes will be a “late January/early February” system launch date. The analyst says the first wave of Vision Pros will ship to Apple in about a month, with total shipments of around 500,000 for the entire year.
From the company technology/apple-forced-make-cuts-vision-pro-production-plans-ft-2023-07-03/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>precise target for the year remains an open question. About a month after the device was revealed, reports suggested that Apple had lowered expectations from around a million to “less than 400,000.”
Even the updated figure of 500,000 is small for a company of Apple's enormous size and influence. Keep in mind that the company should ship more than 200 million iPhones this calendar year.
The Vision Pro, however, is widely considered the biggest bet of Tim Cook's 12 years as CEO. Not only is it an entirely new category and form factor for the company, but it's also prohibitively expensive, even for customers accustomed to shelling out more for Apple products. Add to that the decades-long failure of virtual reality to live up to expectations, and we have quite the uphill struggle on our hands.
Kuo calls Vision Pro “Apple's most important product of 2024.” Given the years of speculation and all the time and money the company has no doubt invested in the headphones, it's a difficult claim to argue.
