Apple’s Vision Pro debuted just two months ago, drawing crowds of people to sign up for demos and almost immediately selling out. Since then, interest in Apple’s premiere mixed reality headset has plummeted and sales are grinding to a halt at some retail stores, Bloomberg reports on Monday. So, what happened to Apple’s latest hardware device?
Some Apple stores are reportedly down to selling just a handful of Vision Pros in an entire week, according to Bloomberg. The hype around the Apple Vision Pro has fallen dramatically since the headset sold 180,000 units during its January pre-order weekend. Demand for demos of the technology is also reportedly “way down” since the product’s launch. Even worse, the report says, many people who book appointments to test Vision Pros simply don’t show up anymore.
It wasn’t long ago that clamoring Apple fans lined up around the corner at the Apple Stores in New York City to demo the company’s first spatial computing headset. But consumers may have already moved on. Despite the lousy sales, the iPhone maker has not stopped pushing the Vision Pro; Apple features the headset on the homepage of Apple.com.
Existing Vision Pro owners may be letting their headsets collect dust on the shelf. An initial wave of Vision Pro returns, evidenced by lengthy social media posts from tech influencers, may have been overstated, but Apple seems to have bigger concerns on its hands. People are not using their Vision Pros as much as their other Apple products.
Many customers on the subreddit r/VisionPro complain that the headsets are impractical in everyday life. The forums are full of people saying they rarely wear the headset out in public. Other common complaints are that the Vision Pro hurts to wear, it’s hard to find apps on the Vision Pro app store, and that the technology is just isolating.
It’s widely been expected that the Apple Vision Pro’s hype would die down, and the headset would become a niche product for several years until Apple made a cheaper version. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and many others expected this. Now, these predictions have come true, and the Vision Pro has virtually disappeared from the public conversation.
To be fair, Apple is working to address some of these issues. The company debuted spatial personas a few weeks ago, to give you some friendly companions in the Vision Pro universe, however, the early spatial personas were a little creepy. In terms of comfortability, Apple sells a Dual Loop Band headset strap that applies less pressure on your face. That said, it lacks the usual sleekness of Apple.
Netflix was one of many popular iPhone apps, alongside Spotify and YouTube, that notably passed on creating a Vision Pro app in Jan. At the time, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said his company would “wait and see” if anyone actually uses the headset before investing in a new spatial computing app. A few months later, it seems that Netflix and these other apps are not missing out by not having a Vision Pro app. On the other hand, the lack of popular apps on the Vision Pro may have contributed to its steep initial downfall.
