Apple's Vision Pro: US newspaper collects voices of disappointed users
The Vision Pro will soon be on the market for a year and a half - but its form factor still causes headaches and neck pain, writes the Wall Street Journal.
Person with Vision Pro: Here you can see both the (too heavy) form factor and the (annoying) cable to the battery pack.
(Image: Apple)
This summer, the Vision Pro has been on the market in Germany for a year, while in the USA it celebrated its first anniversary in February. The American business newspaper Wall Street Journal took this as an opportunity to ask buyers of the Apple headset, which costs at least 3,500 US dollars in the USA (Europe: from 4,000 euros), what they do with the device and whether they regret buying it. The result is unpleasant: the hardware is often rarely taken out, there is some “buyer's remorse” even among early adopters, and the question of what Apple will do with the device remains unanswered.
Hardware too heavy and too expensive
The WSJ quotes buyer Dustin Fox as saying that his Vision Pro is collecting dust. “I think I've taken it out maybe four times in the last year.” The real estate agent, who describes himself as an early adopter, finds the hardware “way too heavy”. He can only wear it for 20 to 30 minutes before his neck hurts. Another early adopter, Tovia Goldstein from New York, says he can only watch TV shows or movies for 60 minutes at a time, “then I have to take it off”. In addition, there are not enough apps for the Vision Pro. “I wouldn't recommend [the headset] to anyone to buy today unless they're wealthy and don't know what they want to do with their money.”
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Apple, however, is not the only company struggling to get its headset to large groups of customers. But none of the devices are – as expensive as the Vision Pro, except for professional versions –. It is still only sold by the manufacturer itself, and the price has not fallen. However, there is less and less interest in Apple stores, where the company had set up its demonstration areas. Apple does not disclose sales figures. At least visionOS is regularly updated, and will soon feature eye scrolling.
Apple continues
It is also unlikely that Apple will simply give up the Vision division. Production of the Vision Pro is said to have ended at the end of last year. However, the company is working internally on new, hopefully more cost-effective models and is also determined to bring “real” augmented reality glasses onto the market, even if this could still take years. The Wall Street Journal also comes to a mixed conclusion. The quality of the Vision Pro in terms of screen and operation using eye tracking remains unbeaten in the industry. If it weren't for the annoying form factor – and the price. One of the users interviewed has now found a good way to at least consume entertainment content: He simply lies in bed while doing so, which leads to better weight distribution.
U2 singer Bono, whose special “Stories of Surrender” is the first program ever to run entirely as an “Apple Immersive” on the Vision Pro, told journalists that Apple wanted to make its device more affordable. “I know that Apple really wants to make the Vision Pro more affordable and more democratic.” Apple knows that not everyone can afford the device. “But they're going ahead anyway because they're convinced that one day it will be worth it.”
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