this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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Apple Vision Pro failed to sell out on launch day::Despite expectations, Apple has failed to sell out of its Vision Pro on launch day. This is despite estimates of day 1 availability being limited to between 60,000 and 80,000 units.

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[–] [email protected] 138 points 9 months ago (4 children)

What about "Apple has managed to supply enough units of Vision Pro on day one"?

[–] [email protected] 73 points 9 months ago (8 children)

That would work except knowing apple. Their plan was Probably to sell out by deliberately limiting supply.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Looks like the base model DID sell out.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

Cause No one wants to pay this much for a VR headset that doesn't even run any games. Except for the usual fanboys that would buy everything from the fruit company.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (3 children)

It doesn't run games? What is it actually expected to be used for then, for the average consumer? The only things Ive really seen VR used for thus far are games or game-like social apps, and some commercial purposes like certain kinds of training. Since this looks like it's been sold to individual consumers then, what are they expecting the use case to be?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Netflix, video calls and looking at old pictures is the impression I got.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

I don't wanna put a 3.5k $ headset on to look at photos. I can do that perfectly on my phone or laptop.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You got that impression? I got the impression that the best selling point of it was all about the excel sheets and do more efficiently your work with it (should I remark this is sarcasm?).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Not really, I'd love the idea of having infinite workspace instead of 5 monitors

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

The Internet tells me it's a good contender for enterprise as a similar headset that doesn't need a computer to work costs about $5k+. So I guess the fact it's being sold to consumers is just to ice the proverbial enterprise made money cake. And since so many major consumer apps are saying no to supporting the headset it's gotta sell in the enterprise world or find a super niche of well to do hackers, given it's cost, to keep it alive.

The second hand market in a couple years will be very telling of how well it did and is doing.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Exactly and also its for different market, it's not for an every day user.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Apples gonna apple

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It won’t even run all iPad apps since the developers of some major apps (Netflix, etc) have disabled that function. I don’t think anyone wants Apple to have as much control as they do for the iOS App Store. We also haven’t been shown a compelling reason to spend that much money on a new product and ecosystem when 99% of the computing we do is always with us. I love Apple products and I have zero interest in Vision Pro.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 9 months ago

not selling out should be a good thing. It means they produced enough to match the demand. Selling out means they failed to estimate the demand or their supply chain failed.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (3 children)

As a package designer, I'm intrigued by what might come from this headset, if I had $3500 of play money to throw around I'd probably buy one, but so far I haven't really seen any slam dunk use-cases for this thing yet. I can imagine all sorts of awesome ideas for this thing, BUT biggest problems are going to be price and Apple itself with their walled garden mindset. The kind of apps you'll get from it aren't really going to be that great, given the current state of just regular old iOS apps right now, they all suck and most are designed for profit. Given the limited market for this thing, that could be good or bad, potentially all the greedy revenue-generating apps will stay away from it because there's not as big a market, but potentially others might see all the whales that bought this thing and their deep pockets and realize they can shovel whatever crap onto this thing because there's not that much to buy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (7 children)

I’m just reading tea leaves but I think these could eventually be Apples shot at the two biggest pillars of Microsoft’s consumer base, enterprise and gaming. In enterprise I could see these being great for replacing multi monitor setups and keeping all the information you need in view, obviously the price would still need to come down but I personally would love to decouple from my desk without giving up that screen real estate but maybe I’m in the minority. They also debuted the dev tools for porting games to run on Apples M architecture and MacOS, and with all the progress made in Linux gaming the passed few years I could easily see them trying to optimize that to the point where it’s as good as Proton(which I know the dev kit is based on in some capacity). And that would be a tipping point.

Again this is all just wild speculation but I don’t think it’s completely crazy to think that Apple released these before they had the other pieces in place so they could completely iron the kinks out. Feel free to tell me why I’m very wrong if I am

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Replacing a computer needs a better long-use experience. VR headsets are not comfortable enough on the face or the eyes for extending periods of time.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

great for replacing multi monitor setups and keeping all the information you need in view

The weight of the device is a problem for that. People report having issue using the device for more than an hour. That doesn't help to get much work done, watch a movie or play a game except some short casual stuff, and it's expensive for just casual stuff.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I think you're vastly understating the price problem. Bulk purchases of laptops, monitors, keyboards, mice, and cameras are going to push prices well below a third of the cost of Apple Vision Pro. That's on top of the licenses needed for employees which I wouldn't be shocked to find out they're more expensive/nonexistent on Apple Vision Pro. This price point confuses me on who this is supposed to be for

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

That's one difference I noticed between my iPhone that I use for business and my main driver Android phone. The focus on maximizing profit feels so much stronger in the popular iOS apps. I'm sure this is subjective and it will depend on the applications you use, but wow is there a massive push to subscribe to everything in Apple world.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

It's bonkers.

$3500 for the unit. AppleCare+ for Vision Pro Headset Costs $499. The Apple Developer Program annual fee is 99 USD and the Apple Developer Enterprise Program annual fee is 299 USD. And you'll need an M2 - Developing for visionOS requires a Mac with Apple Silicon. Any devs using intel macs with real GPUs - those aren't going to work. Add $700-2500 for a mac mini. Cheapest way out with least amount of storage on each device - $4800ish.

All for the privilege of developing software for a platform that will only ever have a tiny install base. Later when the install base grows, do you think apple will be interested in lowering these costs? lol

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

Yeah pretty sure the only reason they "didn't sell out" was because they moved the release window to accommodate the extra demand. For all intents and purposes, this product sold out.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (10 children)

The apple watch also failed to sell well initially. Now just about everyone has one. I don't own a single apple product, but the one thing Apple has going for it with new tech is that they invest in their ecosystem and don't give up on products too quickly.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The fact that they did a launch of a new product line without another keynote talk tells me they know it is not a consumer level device yet. We will likely see them hype up the gen 2/3 version once some killer app feature is developed or they release a more affordable tier. Like the Apple Watch was a bit unanchored until it leaned into the heath tech. You are right Apple doesn’t normally abandon product lines so hopefully they work through it and figure out a mass market appeal.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

The limited production numbers indicate that too. They're essentially banking on using fanboys (no negative connotation here) to beta test and see what they gravitate towards, and where it shines. Then like the health stuff for the watch, they'll capitalize on whatever the standout becomes and sort of cater development around it for mass appeal.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, Apple stuff doesn’t usually get good enough for widespread use until the 3rd generation or so. That was true for Mac OS X, iPod, iPhone, et cetera.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Having worked with folks developing VR/AR tech for “Real Work” and not for the average consumer (for instance, medical education), I’ve seen what current VR/AR tech is like (it’s not great) and the developers I’ve worked with are super excited about Apple’s headset.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

AR/VR dev here: the cost of the platform itself, and associated apple bullshit means I will never be targeting their platform. YMMV.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

"selling out bad"

Also clickbait title. Modern media is garbage

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I guess the downvotes are from the Apple fans ? Lol

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Pretty sure it's because the title is wildly misleading. They moved the release window to accommodate additional demand. They absolutely sold out of what they had originally intended on manufacturing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

What!?!? Why won't people pay for a $3500 device that might give you neck pain but allows you to browse the web, watch videos, or...um...browse the web for 2 hours at a time?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Ship dates slipped to march on day 1, not sure why this wasn’t considered selling out.

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