Camera Find Jarle Kvalheim, Tek.no
Apple’s much-talked-about Vision Pro glasses were launched with a bang at the beginning of February this year, and the web was almost flooded with first impressions, news and reviews.
But when the storm subsided a bit, it didn’t take long for us to report that many Apple Vision Pro buyers were regretting it.
Now the renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi-Kuo reports that the VR glasses have not achieved the expected popularity among consumers. And perhaps not so surprisingly, it is the high price of several thousand dollars that should be the biggest barrier.
This has several consequences, according to Kuo, who says the following:
- Apple has lowered its forecasts for sales of the Vision Pro glasses from up to 800,000 units down to around 400,000 units in 2024.
- Apple cut deliveries for The Vision Pro has been released in other markets, suggesting that demand in the US has been significantly lower than expected. This has also caused the company to lower its expectations for demand in other countries.
- Apple is adjusting the entire timetable for the new product category of “head-mounted display” (HMD). This means that there will probably be no new Vision Pro model in 2025. It was previously expected that a new variant would come in the latter half of 2025. Apple now believes (according to Kuo) to decline in 2025 compared to 2024.
It’s not just Apple that is struggling
Other suppliers of VR and AR glasses have also had a tough time. Meta recently cut the price of its Quest 2 VR headset to $199, Sony last year had to halve the supply of its PlayStation VR2 headset, and Microsoft’s VR business has been hit by the company’s layoffs.
Apple’s Vision Pro is not officially available in Norway yet, and it is still unknown when Apple plans to release the glasses outside the US. When they first arrive here, we can probably expect a price of around NOK 40,000.
