by Apple’s (AAPL) Vision Pro is coming. Etc. The company announced on Monday that it will begin accepting pre-orders for the headphones starting January 19 at 8 a.m. ET, and that they will officially arrive at the company’s physical and online stores in the US on January 2. February.
However, this is not just any product launch. This is Apple’s first new product category in almost 10 years. It last jumped into a new segment of the industry with the Apple Watch in 2015. But there’s a big difference between the Vision Pro and the Apple Watch, other than one goes on your wrist and the other on your face.
The Apple Watch hit the market at a time when fitness trackers and smartwatches were already well-established products. Fitbit was a household name when the Apple Watch arrived and people couldn’t stop talking about tracking their steps.
However, the AR/VR headset space is still largely untested, with Meta’s (META) line of Quest devices positioned as the market leader. And consumers don’t seem to be as hooked on those headphones as Meta expected.
In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that more than half of Meta Quest headset owners did not use their devices just six months after purchasing them. And according to Verge, Meta’s vice president of virtual reality, Mark Rabkin, specifically highlighted 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 doesn’t: a huge number of service subscribers with access to Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. And that alone could give Apple the kind of advantage over Meta it needs to dominate the AR/VR headset industry.
“Apple is entering a market that hasn’t really taken off… significantly 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 untested 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.
Until now, gaming has been one of the main reasons consumers have chosen AR/VR headsets. But even those experiences are far from mind-blowing. I’d rather play on my PlayStation 5 and my 65-inch OLED TV than on any headset. Wearing headphones for more than half an hour can be uncomfortable, the PS5’s graphics are far superior to what any headset can produce, and certain games simply don’t translate well to the headset form factor.
“People don’t play ‘Fortnite’ with headphones,” said Forrester vice president and principal analyst Julie Ask. “They play it on their PC because it’s very fast and the graphics are very good.”
AR/VR companies are also increasingly leaning into the enterprise space, with Meta launching its headsets as a means to have meetings where you can interact with your coworkers in virtual spaces.
But let’s be realistic. Having to turn on your laptop’s camera for a virtual meeting is hard enough. So the idea of the average person voluntarily putting on headphones to join another meeting is a little hard to swallow.
That’s not to say headphones can’t help when it comes to productivity. Using them as a means to view multiple windows and applications on one massive virtual screen would be much better than trying to view all my work on a single laptop screen.
In fact, Apple demonstrated the ability to use the Vision Pro as a kind of high-powered virtual display during a tech demo at WWDC in June. But it’s hard to imagine the average consumer spending $3,499 on a larger screen.
Apple services could be the secret to Vision Pro’s success
Gaming and business capabilities will surely be part of Apple’s formula for the Vision Pro’s success, but the company’s secret weapon is its services business and the countless offerings that come with it.
“[Apple has] a fluid base that is already subscribed to their media services,” Ask said. “If I can instantly start watching movies and doing all these other things, Apple, for example, has games… they have movies and TV shows and they’re compatible with my computer and my smartphone and all these other things, I don’t have to go”. “buy game titles one at a time 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 works to convince users that they need an AR/VR headset.
Apple’s army of app developers should also prove a big help in drumming up 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 Vision Pro will be absolutely huge.
There is also the ease of use factor. While other headsets require you to learn how to use separate drivers and navigate new operating systems, the Vision Pro is relatively simple. Your eyes act as a sort of cursor that highlights everything you’re looking at in an app. To select an item, simply touch your index finger and thumb together. It is easy.
There will certainly be a learning curve for some apps and features, but the fact that you can jump into the world of Vision Pro and start using it right away will prove extremely useful.
All that said, it will take a while for Apple to see major traction from the Vision Pro. It’s still a tremendously expensive device for most consumers. As Llamas explains, you can buy a MacBook Air, an iPhone, AirPods and an Apple Watch for less than the Vision Pro. But if any company is going to get AR/VR off the ground, it will be Apple.
Daniel Howley is Yahoo Finance’s technology editor. He has been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter. @DanielHowley.
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