Thursday, June 20th 2024
Apple Halts Development of Expensive Vision Pro 2 Headset, Shifts Focus to More Affordable Model
Apple has reportedly halted the development of its future Vision Pro 2 headset, opting instead to focus on a more affordable variant. The decision comes as the company grapples with the high production costs associated with the Vision Pro, which was released on February 2 in the US for $3,499 and will be released on July 12 in other countries. According to insiders familiar with the matter, Apple is not expected to manufacture more than 500,000 Vision Pro units this year, casting doubt on the device's ability to gain widespread adoption at such a premium price point. The tech giant's suppliers have already begun scaling back production, with one supplier reducing output by 50% in May due to forecasts of weaker-than-expected demand.
While the Vision Pro promised to deliver a groundbreaking mixed-reality experience, its excessive cost effectively priced it out of reach for the mass market. Recognizing this barrier, Apple has reportedly decided to abandon the development of the costlier "Pro 2" model and instead channel its efforts into creating a more budget-friendly "Vision" variant. The new device is expected to feature fewer cameras, simpler speaker systems, and a streamlined headband design, all aimed at reducing production costs. However, sources indicate that Apple is struggling to significantly lower the costs of key components, such as the display, which could further delay the launch of the successor model. Nevertheless, the company's goal is to create a mixed-reality headset priced around the level of a high-end iPhone, approximately $1,600, and launch the cheaper headset in late 2025.
Source:
The Information
While the Vision Pro promised to deliver a groundbreaking mixed-reality experience, its excessive cost effectively priced it out of reach for the mass market. Recognizing this barrier, Apple has reportedly decided to abandon the development of the costlier "Pro 2" model and instead channel its efforts into creating a more budget-friendly "Vision" variant. The new device is expected to feature fewer cameras, simpler speaker systems, and a streamlined headband design, all aimed at reducing production costs. However, sources indicate that Apple is struggling to significantly lower the costs of key components, such as the display, which could further delay the launch of the successor model. Nevertheless, the company's goal is to create a mixed-reality headset priced around the level of a high-end iPhone, approximately $1,600, and launch the cheaper headset in late 2025.
24 Comments on Apple Halts Development of Expensive Vision Pro 2 Headset, Shifts Focus to More Affordable Model
202520262028 and they still didn't figure it out.The company makes phones, computers and mp3 players. The best solution for cars they did get going was CarPlay. I think that tells us enough.
It's also not the first time that they launched something that didn't do well:
- The Apple III: their first failure was riddled with software and hardware problems that made the thing borderline unusable
- Apple Lisa: So expensive, nobody bought it, they created the Mac that was worse, but far cheaper.
- iPod Hi-Fi: canceled after a year and a half
- Power Mac G4 cube: cancelled after a year
- Apple Newton: failed to find its target
- The Pippin: Lmao
- Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh: discounted at 75% because nobody wanted the thing
And there's even more stuff.Apple Discontinuing Apple Pay Later
As I think that was the main bottleneck for the weak demand. If they were able to deliver then they could have achieved their 500k target despite the high cost.
A reduction in cost isn't going to help a lot in this kind of niche device in my view, as the market is already too small, specially since 'spatial computing' isn't really a thing for anyone yet.
Add to that VR/AR also implies movement, you can't just use the headset in your desk chair. You need physical space in the room to make full use of it.
My prediction: for the foreseeable future, these will not break out of professional usage and people with enough income to afford a dedicate entertainment room.
It's hard to justfiy for businesses as well due how closed and locked down it is, as per usual with Apple products.
It doesn't solve any of the problem with HMDs either and even adds some of it's own. The lense quality is poor, the FOV is poor, there's obvious motion blur, it's heavy, it requires an external battery, and it doesn't come with controllers. It's hand tracking system is nice for regular consumers who they've priced out and bad for anything that requires precision like design, engineering, art, ect.
I suppose this is why big companies buy up small competitors, because genuine innovation is hard while leveraging your position and capital in the market to corner and stifle innovation is easy.
Expensive headsets are nothing new.
Apple hasn't really solved any significant issues with the Vision Pro. In fact, they've tried to repurpose what a headset is for and invented a solution to problems that don't exist, have never existed, and probably will never exist.
The end result is that it's an expensive, flawed, awkward, incompatible offering with no killer feature that makes it a must-buy. The only sales Apple is likely to make from the Vision are the very wealthy Apple hardcore zealots who want to buy into everything Apple do without question, and to whom a $3500+ outlay is trivial disposable income of no consequence. I'm pretty sure Tim Cook knows this and I suspect very few Vision Pro headsets will ever be sold.
Unless Apple make dramatic changes to how it works, what you can do with it, and improve its compatibility with existing VR ecosystems, it's destined to vanish into obscurity regardless of the selling price.
I feel like the path forward for Apple is narrow unless it finds pro niches it could exploit, for consumers it's just going to be and remain a tough sell.
Missing controllers
Incompatible with other ecosystems
No ecosystem of its own
Waaaay too slow to be a gaming device.
Like most reviewers, it's kinda hard to know what the Vision Pro is for, because it doesn't really work for anyone, right now, other than as a cool AR toy. Thing is, the Quest3 is an equally cool AR toy at 1/7th the price, and it also does all the gaming stuff that the Vision Pro can't....
So even if the Vision (non-Pro) 2 was released at 1/7th the price, to compete with a Quest3, you'd simply buy the Quest3 because it does far more than Apple's idea of what a headset should do, and it's from a much more experienced headset developer who understand things like ergonomics, weight, frame latency, battery life, and gaming. Apple needs a unique feature that's not a stupid 5-minute gimmick. They've got nothing right now.
Mark Zuckerberg dreamt of a world where those headsets would replace our computers before the Vision Pro was a thing... the vision isn't a new take, it's just the most sophisticated standalone headset...But all those headsets suffer from the same problem: it's too damn bothersome, and too disconnected from reality no matter what they are trying to hype up. Even rich people got bored of the Vision Pro.
Meta wants to replace your PC with its Project Cambria VR headset (pcgamesn.com)
The only kind of tech that manages to become an everyday thing are techs that aren't too much of a bother to carry around and use. Until they manage to fit the tech into the sunglasses form factor, I'm not seeing this killing of laptops and desktops. Smartphones have arguments that allowed them to become a necessity for many people. What's the argument about XR besides being cool to play with? what can they do miles better than a phone and computers, to warrant them a place in everyday life?
(Apple is also a company that is very strict about its vision of what a product is supposed to be: convertible tactile laptops? not a thing. What,The iPad pro? No. It's a tablet, you won't get a proper KB/M interface because it's not supposed to replace a Macbook. macOS on an iPad? what are you talking about? Are you insane? )
But Google was onto something with their smol design - but still too early & expensive.
Those devices have to come down to like $100 to appeal to the mass market.
Like a lot of the products we're seeing now, no one bothers to check if there's actually a big enough market to justify the cost.
I've tried various things other than gaming - 3D movies, WMR surround desktops, and some 3D art/modelling apps but they're all basically worthless gimmicks that fail to hide the fact you're wearing a kilogram of plastic that both expels it's own heat from the electronics whilst stifling natural airflow to your own face. Nothing about wearing a VR headset is practical or comfortable long-term, and I don't even need glasses.