Ten months after its launch, the Vision Pro headset is not yet a blockbuster for Apple. Sales are disappointing and developers are in no rush to build applications for the device.
Apple had big dreams with the Vision Pro, but the headset’s first year is threatening to turn into more of a nightmare. After a brief hyper period, sales of the headset have plummeted completely since the third quarter. A limited app supply has a lot to do with that: Apple is having trouble convincing developers to create apps tailored to the glasses.
Although Apple itself is scarce with sales figures on its mixed reality headset, analysts estimate the number of units sold will not exceed 400,000 thousand. When it launched in the U.S. early this year, there was a lot of interest, but sales quickly fell. The third quarter and the expansion into multiple markets did not bring any results. Far below the initial expectations of Apple, which was already scaling back production itself.
Chicken and egg
Wall Street Journal puts its finger on the problem: there are too few apps for the Vision Pro. Apple itself claims there are 2,500 apps for the Vision Pro; other figures put it at just under 2,000. That’s a lot less than the Meta Quest, which has a library of more than 3,500 applications. Moreover, only a third of those applications were designed specifically for the Vision Pro: most are existing apps brought to the headset.
This ensures that few applications fully exploit the Vision Pro’s capabilities as well. The headset lacks a “killer app”: those who already bought the device quickly lose interest. In the month of September, barely ten new applications appeared in the app store for the Vision Pro.
Why developers are ignoring the Vision Pro seems to be a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Apple is having trouble getting the Vision Pro to sell because there are too few app offerings. But disappointing sales figures won’t make developers rush to build apps tailored to the device.
Cheaper version
Another stumbling block for the Vision Pro is also undoubtedly the price. For one Vision Pro headset, you can buy ten Meta Quests 3S. If that then turns out to have more applications, it becomes a difficult story for the Vision Pro. Never mind that interest in all things Metaverse is already lower than it was a few years ago anyway.
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Few apps, little interest: Apple doesn’t get Vision Pro off the ground
Apple has not given up on the Vision Pro quite yet and is said to be working on a “cheaper” version of the headset, which will still cost as much as two thousand dollars. Among other things, the new version would come with an A processor, used for iPhones, and drop the EyeSight feature. This model would possibly hit the market early next year.