With its most costly wager in over ten years, Apple (AAPL.O) said it would begin selling its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset in the US on February 2. The firm is attempting to take market share away from rival meta platforms. With a starting price of $3,499, the headset is the company’s most significant product release since the 2007 release of the first iPhone.
Pre-orders will be accepted beginning on January 19 at 5 a.m. Pacific Time (1300 GMT), the business said on Monday. Analysts have praised the device, unveiled in June of last year, for its outstanding technology, including an external display that projects the user’s eyes onto those outside the device and a new chip that Apple claims can process sensor data faster than the blink of an eye.
With the gadget, users can talk, surf the web, and even view movies at a higher quality than a 4K TV. However, the Vision Pro must constantly be connected to a power source. Due to its high price tag, early adoption is anticipated to be restricted to affluent individuals and tech enthusiasts.
Investors and analysts anticipate that the product will only make a small sales contribution to revenue. The headgear will be tested in a market full of gadgets that haven’t caught on with customers yet. Additionally, it will directly pit Apple against Meta (META.O), with the two firms having long-standing disagreements over matters like developer platform management and consumer privacy.
The price of Vision Pro is about three times that of the most expensive headgear in Meta’s lineup of mixed and virtual reality gadgets. With no extra battery pack needed, the Facebook parent company’s top-of-the-line Quest Pro mixed reality headset—which combines virtual reality with an actual video feed—has a battery life of almost two hours.
