Apple’s planned early 2024 launch of the Vision Pro headset is already shaping up to be a tangled, complicated hullabaloo. Not only will customers need to drop $US3,500 on Apple’s first “spatial computer,” but you’ll need to schedule an appointment and sit down for a skull measuring session just to get your hands on the headset plus accessories.
According to Apple expert Mark Gurman over at Bloomberg, the company will have a special section of its stores for seating, space for one or two headset demos, and for tools to size the complicated head straps meant to make the Vision Pro more comfortable for extended use. Some early testers for the headset mentioned that the device felt heavy with just the single back strap. Reports note that Apple could be testing another type of fastening mechanism.
While Gizmodo’s own tests of the device didn’t note much discomfort for the short time we got to use it, Apple has promised it will supply multiple sizes of bands and light seals to make the device sit as comfortably as possible. The seals could be measured through an iOS app that scans users’ faces. Apple has also promised that those with glasses can buy separate prescription lenses made by Carl Zeiss and fitted inside the headset. Customers may be able to order those parts through an online portal. Gizmodo reached out to Apple for comment, but we did not immediately hear back.
All this is to say stores will need to maintain a large stock of all these separate bands and seals, and Apple Store “Geniuses” will need to be briefed on these complicated sizing and measuring requirements. Sure, the company also required appointments for the initial 2015 rollout of the Apple Watch, but face scanning and prescription lenses are a large step above fitting watch bands on users’ wrists.
Apple is planning to have the Vision Pro available at all 270 U.S. Apple Stores, but major cities like New York and Los Angeles will get access to Apple’s first leap into VR-dom. The device should also be available in France, Germany, China, Japan, and Korea, to name a few, though the UK and Canada are reportedly slated be the first two markets to access the Vision Pro after the U.S.
Recent reports from the Financial Times have already noted Apple is planning to cut production targets for its upcoming headset, largely due to the device’s overall design complexity. Sources close to Apple and its manufacturers told the FT claimed the company was planning to have less than 400,000 units available come early 2024.
A good way to signal the death knell for any device or stock is to receive an endorsement from Jim “I Was Wrong” Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money. The loud, proud, and often incorrect ex-hedge fund manager has apologised for going hard on Meta stock after being bullish on the company’s “Metaverse” initiative. He’s previously had to turn his back on crypto after initially telling people to lap up digital currencies before the price inevitably tanked.
During a Wednesday edition of CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Cramer told his fellow hosts and the audience that “when they’re ready with the Vision Pro, We’re all going to get one.” He further compared the $US3,500 headset to $US2,000 Taylor Swift tickets, suggesting that FOMO will play a big part in building hype, not to mention that you can watch a football match from a “number of angles.” If that hasn’t sold you on dropping two months of your paycheck on Apple’s extraordinarily complicated, ultra-expensive consumer end VR headset, then what will?