Apple Vision Pro has 16GB of memory, potentially 1TB of storage

AppleInsider

The Apple Vision Pro may be equipped with 16GB of memory at launch, code exploration has uncovered, with storage for the mixed-reality headset potentially able to reach as high as 1TB.

Watching Spatial Video on an Apple Vision Pro

Apple announced that it will be bringing the Apple Vision Pro to consumer hands from February 2 in the United States. While Apple hasn't revealed many of the configuration options for the headset yet, some details have apparently surfaced via Xcode.

According to MacRumors on Tuesday, the release of Xcode 15.2, which includes support for developing visionOS apps, has references to the Vision Pro bearing a total of 16GB of unified memory. This is apparently the same amount Apple included in its Vision Pro development kits.

The press release announcing the pre-order and release date did mention that the starting price of $3,499 will include 256GB of storage, but only alluded to higher capacities. Similar searches within Xcode seems to indicate that a 1TB capacity will be available.

Again, this apparently correlates with the capacities offered in the developer kits.

Full configuration options for the headsets won't be officially confirmed until January 19, when Apple opens up preorders in the United States.



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9secondkox2

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

roake

Personally, I would like to be able to see what hardware is compatible, and what big 3rd party software will be released.

Can I use a flight yoke and other controls to play X-Plane for an experience beyond my wildest imagination?  And that’s not even thinking outside the box!

There are so many possibilities with Apple Vision!

mikethemartian

9secondkox2 said:

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

Those base values are there just so they can advertise a low starting at price.

chasm

mikethemartian said:

Those base values are there just so they can advertise a low starting at price.

$3500 is “low” now.  

blastdoor

This is a new product category. Buyers aren’t in a good position to know how much storage they need. Apple should sell a single configuration and make it well equipped for the early adopters willing to plunk down $3500. This isn’t the time to squeeze extra profit for an extra 500 GB of storage. 

Marvin

9secondkox2 said:

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

This is priced at $3500. $3500 Macs have 36GB+ RAM.

Still, I wouldn't complain if they reduced the upgrade prices a bit. RAM is easily under $5/GB and NAND is under $0.10/GB:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/historical-cost-of-computer-memory-and-storage

8GB RAM is under $40 (Apple charges $200). 1TB NAND is under $100 (Apple charges $400). Apple's prices are close to 2013 prices. I reckon 12GB RAM + 512GB base on low-end without a price increase would be reasonable and 24GB RAM + 1TB base on $2k+ models. These would cost Apple under $50 on low-end and under $100 on high-end.

Then on low-end charge $200 to go from 12GB to 24GB and on high-end $200 to go 24GB to 36GB.

blastdoor

9secondkox2 said:

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

I have no problem with a base config of 8 GB ram and 256GB SSD. That’s a usable configuration. 

My gripe is what they charge to upgrade that base configuration. Cut all the upgrade prices in half and everything would be fine.

pulseimages

9secondkox2 said:

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

Time to get rid of the 64GB base tier for the iPad and iPad Air. Start at 128GB, the iPhone 15 does. 

danox

A base M2 SOC supports up to 24 gigs of ram if Apple wants it to, also how much ram does the R1 co-processing chip have?

Marvin

danox said:

A base M2 SOC supports up to 24 gigs of ram if Apple wants it to, also how much ram does the R1 co-processing chip have?

R1 is for processing camera feeds. If it uses 4K HDR framebuffers, 3840 x 2160 x 5-bytes x 6 visual cameras = 250MB + 4x IR cameras for eye-tracking + 2 depth cameras. I wouldn't expect it to use more than around 2GB of memory but likely to be high bandwidth as it needs to process those frames at 90FPS+. They might store current frame and previous frame plus composite of both = 1GB then mono feeds for depth and IR (< 512MB).

Rogue01

blastdoor said:

This is a new product category. Buyers aren’t in a good position to know how much storage they need. Apple should sell a single configuration and make it well equipped for the early adopters willing to plunk down $3500. This isn’t the time to squeeze extra profit for an extra 500 GB of storage. 

It is not really a new category.  It runs iPadOS apps.  People would already know storage requirements based on what apps they want to use.  And the battery life is only about 2 hours, so not much use from it.

Xed

9secondkox2 said:

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

No consideration that it costs $3500 v a Mac mini that starts at $600?

Rogue01

If Apple offers a 1TB option, they charge 4x the industry standard for 1TB of storage, so now you are looking at $4,000 to run iPadOS apps.  

Apple really needs to stop with their extortion tactics for memory and SSD prices.  It was better when you could upgrade memory and storage on your own, because no one bought the Apple upgrades.  Similar to the printer market in which the ink cartridges sometimes cost more than the actual printer.  Now Apple has the consumer over the barrel and they know it and charge ridiculous prices.

Xed

Rogue01 said:

If Apple offers a 1TB option, they charge 4x the industry standard for 1TB of storage, so now you are looking at $4,000 to run iPadOS apps.  

Apple really needs to stop with their extortion tactics for memory and SSD prices.  It was better when you could upgrade memory and storage on your own, because no one bought the Apple upgrades.  Similar to the printer market in which the ink cartridges sometimes cost more than the actual printer.  Now Apple has the consumer over the barrel and they know it and charge ridiculous prices.

1a) How exactly do you know how much they charge for any specific component? You don't. You only know what they charge for the range of a product line and you think you can extrapolate their profit of a specific component based on that configuration variance. You can't. Their profit margin is based on their estimated sales across the range. They offer entry level options to entice buyers with a lower profit margin for obvious reasons.

1b) A fun little spreadsheet experiment with a  you can run is to adjust the prices for a given product category (e,g, 16" MacBook Pro) where Apple would get the same profit margin, but you alter the cost for the chipset, unified memory, storage, or anything else you'd like, to see how that would affect the low-end of that product.

2) You may feel slighted they want to entice buyers to try out Apple products or increase their net revenue and profits, but that's fucking business. What it's not is extortion. If you actually have a problem with this you can A) buy the low end product knowing that Apple's net profit will be lower, or 2) choose to boycott Apple altogether. Or, if you really feel this is extortion you can take Apple to court.

9secondkox2

Looking forward to gen 3 or 4. Samsung finally showed of a genuinely great transparent LED display just recently. Sony or Samsung will boil that down to sunglasses size before too long. No need for camera footage of the world around you when you can just see it through a lense. Lighter device, better battery, less bulk, a form factor that gets out of the way, definitely looking forward to that. 

9secondkox2

Xed said:

Rogue01 said:

If Apple offers a 1TB option, they charge 4x the industry standard for 1TB of storage, so now you are looking at $4,000 to run iPadOS apps.  

Apple really needs to stop with their extortion tactics for memory and SSD prices.  It was better when you could upgrade memory and storage on your own, because no one bought the Apple upgrades.  Similar to the printer market in which the ink cartridges sometimes cost more than the actual printer.  Now Apple has the consumer over the barrel and they know it and charge ridiculous prices.

1a) How exactly do you know how much they charge for any specific component? You don't. You only know what they charge for the range of a product line and you think you can extrapolate their profit of a specific component based on that configuration variance. You can't. Their profit margin is based on their estimated sales across the range. They offer entry level options to entice buyers with a lower profit margin for obvious reasons.

1b) A fun little spreadsheet experiment with a  you can run is to adjust the prices for a given product category (e,g, 16" MacBook Pro) where Apple would get the same profit margin, but you alter the cost for the chipset, unified memory, storage, or anything else you'd like, to see how that would affect the low-end of that product.

2) You may feel slighted they want to entice buyers to try out Apple products or increase their net revenue and profits, but that's fucking business. What it's not is extortion. If you actually have a problem with this you can A) buy the low end product knowing that Apple's net profit will be lower, or 2) choose to boycott Apple altogether. Or, if you really feel this is extortion you can take Apple to court.

LOL. It’s a rip and you (as well as everyone else) know it. You don’t have to curse and swear and pass out. 

It is what it is. 

9secondkox2

blastdoor said:

9secondkox2 said:

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

I have no problem with a base config of 8 GB ram and 256GB SSD. That’s a usable configuration. 

My gripe is what they charge to upgrade that base configuration. Cut all the upgrade prices in half and everything would be fine.

blastdoor said:

9secondkox2 said:

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

I have no problem with a base config of 8 GB ram and 256GB SSD. That’s a usable configuration. 

My gripe is what they charge to upgrade that base configuration. Cut all the upgrade prices in half and everything would be fine.

Fair enough. I don’t quite agree with the base being fair. But I definitely agree with the upgrade pricing being far out of line. 

9secondkox2

Rogue01 said:

If Apple offers a 1TB option, they charge 4x the industry standard for 1TB of storage, so now you are looking at $4,000 to run iPadOS apps.  

Apple really needs to stop with their extortion tactics for memory and SSD prices.  It was better when you could upgrade memory and storage on your own, because no one bought the Apple upgrades.  Similar to the printer market in which the ink cartridges sometimes cost more than the actual printer.  Now Apple has the consumer over the barrel and they know it and charge ridiculous prices.

I remember prior to m1 launch, everyone was so excited about apple doing their own thing and how avoiding the Intel and amd fees would bring cheaper Mac’s. LOL Instead, the prices took a Spacex rocket to the outer limits. Sure “base” models with specs from half a decade ago are somewhat affordable, but even those are messed with. From halving the ssd read speeds of m2 and m3 models if you don’t upgrade, to halving bus speeds of m3 models unless you upgrade, then charging an arm and a leg for those upgrades - when the m1 gen didn’t do any of that (except rip you at upgrade pricing), it’s a total rip. But apple knows they’ve got a user base and there’s no where else to go. Windows is a joke, Linux is just not that nice an experience, and  what’s left? Chrome? LOL. Sad state of affairs. Apple Silicon is great. But it’s also proven to be a bit of a money munching Trojan horse. 

9secondkox2

Marvin said:

9secondkox2 said:

Apple, time to up the base RAM on all Macs to 16 GB.

If you are giving a headset 16 GB, then a Mac should have that to start with as well. at the least.

and 256 gb in bae mac storage? in what world is that ok?

This is priced at $3500. $3500 Macs have 36GB+ RAM.

Still, I wouldn't complain if they reduced the upgrade prices a bit. RAM is easily under $5/GB and NAND is under $0.10/GB:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/historical-cost-of-computer-memory-and-storage

8GB RAM is under $40 (Apple charges $200). 1TB NAND is under $100 (Apple charges $400). Apple's prices are close to 2013 prices. I reckon 12GB RAM + 512GB base on low-end without a price increase would be reasonable and 24GB RAM + 1TB base on $2k+ models. These would cost Apple under $50 on low-end and under $100 on high-end.

Then on low-end charge $200 to go from 12GB to 24GB and on high-end $200 to go 24GB to 36GB.

That’s not base though. That’s the third option to the right (on desktop). That’s a preset upgrade. Pretty decent one, all things considered, but still. 

Xed

9secondkox2 said:

Rogue01 said:

If Apple offers a 1TB option, they charge 4x the industry standard for 1TB of storage, so now you are looking at $4,000 to run iPadOS apps.  

Apple really needs to stop with their extortion tactics for memory and SSD prices.  It was better when you could upgrade memory and storage on your own, because no one bought the Apple upgrades.  Similar to the printer market in which the ink cartridges sometimes cost more than the actual printer.  Now Apple has the consumer over the barrel and they know it and charge ridiculous prices.

I remember prior to m1 launch, everyone was so excited about apple doing their own thing and how avoiding the Intel and amd fees would bring cheaper Mac’s. LOL Instead, the prices took a Spacex rocket to the outer limits. Sure “base” models with specs from half a decade ago are somewhat affordable, but even those are messed with. From halving the ssd read speeds of m2 and m3 models if you don’t upgrade, to halving bus speeds of m3 models unless you upgrade, then charging an arm and a leg for those upgrades - when the m1 gen didn’t do any of that (except rip you at upgrade pricing), it’s a total rip. But apple knows they’ve got a user base and there’s no where else to go. Windows is a joke, Linux is just not that nice an experience, and  what’s left? Chrome? LOL. Sad state of affairs. Apple Silicon is great. But it’s also proven to be a bit of a money munching Trojan horse. 

Even thought I've seen if for decades it's still so fucking weird to see people get upset by what something costs v what something can do for them.

Could Apple have decided to make a much slower and cheaper Mac that was basically the same performance as the last Intel MacBook Pro  to be the first Apple Silicon MacBook Pro and then done no other advancements to keep prices way down? Of course, but you surely wouldn't bitched about that, too. Making things faster, more efficient, and overall better is kinda what technically strives for.