Apple’s (AAPL) Vision Pro is coming. And so forth. The company announced Monday that it will begin taking pre-orders for the headset starting January 19 at 8 a.m. ET, and that it will officially launch in the company’s online and physical stores in the US on February 2.
However, this is not just any product launch. This is Apple’s first new product category in almost a decade. He last entered a new industry segment in 2015 with the Apple Watch. But there’s a big difference between the Vision Pro and the Apple Watch, except one goes on your wrist and the other goes on your face.
The Apple Watch came to market at a time when fitness trackers and smartwatches were already established products. Fitbit was a household name when the Apple Watch came out, and people couldn’t stop talking about tracking their steps.
However, the AR/VR headset space remains largely untested, with Meta’s (META) Quest line of devices leading the market. And consumers don’t seem to be as hooked on those headsets 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 until six months after purchase. And according to The Verge, Meta’s VP of VR Mark Rabkin specifically called out user interest in the company’s Quest 2 headset during an employee meeting in February 2023.
But Apple also has a powerful weapon that Meta does not: a huge number of subscribers to services with access to Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. And that alone could give Apple the kind of edge over Meta it needs to dominate the AR/VR headset industry.
“Apple is entering a market that hasn’t really taken off in recent years,” IDC research analyst Ramon Llamas told Yahoo Finance. “But you know… where Apple goes, the markets tend to go up.”
Apple is entering an unproven market
Apple’s Vision Pro headset, or spatial computer, as the company calls it, will test the company’s ability to get consumers interested in a product category that still feels like an answer in search of a question.
To date, gaming has been one of the main reasons consumers have purchased AR/VR headsets. But even those experiences are far from amazing. I’d rather play games on my PlayStation 5 and 65 inch OLED TV than on any headset. It can be uncomfortable to wear a headset for more than half an hour, the graphics on the PS5 are far superior to what a headset can produce, and certain games simply don’t translate well to the headset form factor.
“People don’t play ‘Fortnite’ on a headset,” said Julie Ask, vice president and chief analyst at Forrester. “They play it on their PC because it’s so fast and the graphics are so good.”
AR/VR companies are also leaning further into the enterprise space, with Meta pitching its headset as a means to hold meetings with your colleagues where you can interact with each other in virtual spaces.
But let’s be real. It’s hard enough to turn on your laptop’s camera for a virtual meeting. So the idea that the average person will willingly put on a headset to join yet another meeting is a little hard to accept.
That’s not to say headsets can’t help when it comes to productivity. It would be much better to use them as a way to view multiple windows and apps on a huge virtual screen than to try to see all my work on one laptop screen.
Apple even demonstrated the ability to use the Vision Pro as a kind of powerful 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 could be the secret to the Vision Pro’s success
Gaming and enterprise capabilities will certainly be part of Apple’s success formula for the Vision Pro, but the company’s secret weapon is its services business and the myriad of offerings it brings.
“[Apple has] a liquid base that is already subscribed to their media services,” said Ask. “If I can immediately watch movies and do all these other things, Apple, one, has games… they have movies and TV shows and are compatible with my computer and my smartphone and all these other things, I don’t have to Go 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 prove to be a powerful feature for Apple as it convinces users that they need an AR/VR headset.
Apple’s army of app developers should also be extremely helpful in generating interest in the Vision Pro. After all, no one really understood how powerful the iPhone would be until Apple launched the App Store and allowed third-party apps on the smartphone. Getting more developers to build for the Vision Pro will be absolutely huge.
There is also the ease of use factor. While other headsets require you to learn how to use individual controllers and navigate new operating systems, the Vision Pro is relatively simple. Your eyes act like a cursor that marks what you’re looking at in an app. To select an item, simply tap your index finger and thumb together. It’s so easy.
There will certainly be a learning curve for some apps and features, but being able to jump into the world of the Vision Pro and start using it straight away will prove to be extremely useful.
That said, it will be a while before Apple sees any major progress in the Vision Pro. It is still a very expensive device for most consumers. As Llamas explains, you could buy a MacBook Air, iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch for less than the Vision Pro. But if there is one company that wants AR/VR to take off, it will be Apple.
Daniel Howley is the technical editor at Yahoo Finance. He has been involved in the technical industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.
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