by Apple’s ( AAPL ) new high-end VR headset, the Vision Pro, launched for pre-orders on Friday with a hefty price tag of $3,499. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of IT International Securities estimates that Apple logged between 160,000-180,000 pre-orders for the device over the weekend.
The Vision Pro is Apple’s first foray into VR/AR hardware, competing with the established Meta (META) Quest headsets that currently dominate the consumer virtual reality market.
Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley breaks down the data, analyzing how consumers may question the device’s intended use case.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Note to editor: This article was written by Angela Smith
Video transcript
– Well, some calculations for pre-orders of Apple’s Vision Pro headset are in, with one analyst estimating that between 160 and 180,000 were sold over the weekend. The device went on sale at 8:00 AM Eastern time on Friday, and is set to begin shipping in early March.
Bring on our tech guru, Dan Howley from Yahoo Finance. Dan, that $3,500 price tag. Turns out people are willing to shell it out.
DAN HOWLEY: Yes, a lot of early adopters, a lot of Apple fans, are probably the ones going into this. Probably many developers as well. People who just want to get into this.
Of course, the AR/VR market has been up and down. There was the first phase where people were just really enthusiastic about it and then it started to take off a bit. Meta is the market leader with its Quest product line.
And there are various reports saying that after a few weeks, people don’t really pick them up as much or they just sit in a box. So it will be interesting to see what happens here with the Vision Pro as these people go out and buy one.
I made a fake purchase, $3,500 is a little rich for my blood at this point. But he indicated that it would be delivered sometime in mid to late February. So of course, the dates are being pushed back here on what people can get as far as the product itself.
And there are also reports that some app developers are not going to put their apps on the Vision Pro out of the gate. I believe Netflix is one of them, Spotify, some of the companies that haven’t necessarily had the best public relations with Apple, as far as the app stores go. And so those won’t be available when it comes to the Vision Pro itself.
But I guess that’s not stopping people from going out and buying it. I mean, I got to try it back in June at WWDC. I was very impressed compared to what I’ve seen from other headsets, whether it’s the Quest 3 or anything else, the previous generation PlayStation VR that I’ve used. So it’s really great.
I think the biggest question here is, what are you going to use it with, right? I mean, I keep kind of harping on this, I have a 65 inch OLED TV. I love it. It looks great. It’s 4K. Everything looks awesome. I don’t know if I need to – and I’m a dork when it comes to screens, right. I keep stressing my wife, what about this TV? Shouldn’t we get one of these?
So it’s not like I don’t like this stuff but I just – I think to myself, I’m still trying to get the sense of where is the killer app that makes it worth $3,500 for me?
– And you raise a good point, especially when you talk about developer relations, some of the apps that aren’t going to be on it, and then you combine that with the price tag and that’s what I’m going to to use even. factor. How do you think Apple gets this beyond the early adopters to get your everyday person interested in this product?
DAN HOWLEY: I think it’s the benefit of it. When the initial reviews start coming out and people give their own input on what it’s like to own them, that’s when I think we’ll see how Apple pushes this on face.
Don’t forget, when the Apple Watch came out, it didn’t get great reviews. They were reasonable. People were like, well, why do I need this watch? It is expensive. Fast forward to now and it’s the best selling smartwatch in the world.
So, I mean, the same thing with the AirPods. People made fun of them when they first came out. And if you walk around anywhere, people have AirPods all over the place. There are spinoffs that try to look like the AirPods because the AirPods are so popular.
So it’s not that this isn’t a product that has potential, I think right now, people are still trying to figure out what they’re going to use it for, what they need it for, just like we saw with the another. With the Apple Watch and the AirPods. Those are more right-up-in-your-face, this is why I like to use it. But it took some time for the Apple Watch to get used to health issues.
I think that might be what we see with the Vision Pro. Where it comes out, there’s this general idea of what it could be used for, and then it’s put into practice and people start saying, well, I want to buy it.
I think the price tag is still a bit rich for many people. They will have to drop a lower priced option. Or maybe they will lower the price altogether. But, I think now, it’s still a lot to kind of wait a lot and see what we go with this.
– Yes. As one of our guests pointed out, Apple Vision Pro hints that a cheaper alternative may be coming. But as you noted Dan, always a challenge with the first generation of products. But we will be watching to see how that demand rises. Thank you very much.
