'Apple Vision' could cut hundreds off price before late 2025 release
There are many ways that Apple could cut costs to make a cheaper version of the Apple Vision Pro headset, a leaker claims, but you may have to wait until the end of 2025 to see it.
Apple Vision Pro
The first headset release, the Apple Vision Pro, is both high-specification and high-cost, with its $3,500 price tag being too high for typical members of the public to even consider spending. This initial release will be followed up by a second more consumer-friendly version, but that introduces the topic of determining what bits to trim costs on.
In the Bloomberg "Power On" newsletter on Sunday, Mark Gurman discusses the problem of pricing, and that Apple considered holding off on announcing the cost. However, it decided to make the price known since it would "become an even larger target" of negative headlines if it wasn't revealed during WWDC.
The comparison of its cost being in the same ballpark as a high-end television, sound system, computer, and camera but providing more value "may be factually true" but is still "quite misleading," suggests Gurman. TVs are intended to be shared, unlike the headset's single-user existence, not to mention that potential Vision Pro buyers probably already own the mentioned hardware.
Apple could've said its technology was so expensive that it would be losing money on its $15 billion investment into the project, Gurman reasons. "Making an apples to oranges comparison to TVs, monitors, cameras, and consumers undercuts the reality."
Raising the prospect of Apple's work on a second cheaper headset, Gurman explores where costs could be cut compared to the Vision Pro. The three highest costs, namely the camera and sensor array, dual Apple Silicon chips, and twin 4K microLED displays, could be replaced by cheaper alternatives.
Cheaper and lower-quality displays could be used in the upcoming headset, as well as an iPhone-grade chip or an older Mac chip, and fewer cameras.
Gurman also proposes the use of a simpler headband design, a requirement for AirPods for spatial audio, ditching the automatic IPD adjustment, and the loss of the 3D camera feature. However, Apple will probably keep the external EyeSight screen, as well as the eye- and hand-tracking system.
According to Gurman, a release of a cheaper model of Vision Pro is anticipated for the end of 2025 at the earliest. Apple is also working on a second-generation Vision Pro with a faster processor, insinuating Apple will offer a non-Pro and Pro model selection as it does with the iPhone.
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Comments
Gurman is the one being misleading. Buying a 4K OLED TV that can be shared with other viewers is limited to the sizes that are currently available on the market. Can you buy a movie theater screen sized OLED TV? No. Can you buy a drive-in theater sized OLED TV? No. But those are experiences that Apple Vision Pro can provide. And the price for a 98 inch 4K OLED is currently in the $12K to $14K range...enough to buy multiple Apple VPs.
Don’t want it? Great that’s your choice. But it’s half the price of the original Macintosh adjusted for inflation.
What may happen is that there will be the version like the one recently revealed that will continue to be offered at the $3500 price. It will then be the "cheaper version" compared to a "Series 2 Vp."
And there is nothing cheap anywhere in the Apple product line. Different prices, different capabilities...none of it "cheap."
I don’t see how the Apple Vision Pro could ever be less than two grand realistically, usually the more you miniaturize something the higher the price.
Removing bells and whistles to hit a lower end customer is very much part of the plan IMO.
Just like there are Pro and Non-Pro lines for Macs, phones and tablets.
In this particular case there are a plethora of actual products or announced products that are already in the public eye so it made no sense for Apple not to go there, yet.
The way this is built is very obviously designed for you to be plugged in to the mains most of the time, only using the battery when you need to go to another part of the office/warehouse/factory/complex/home, and Apple deliberately emphasized the desktop computing paradigm. You sit in a comfy sitting position with less need for a desk, you use the spatial computer for typical tasks, you can still interact with co-workers.
You take it home, and it replaces your personal computer, TV, and stereo system for social and entertainment purposes. Heh, I wonder how long before “VR face” (where you are noticeably more tan in the non-headset areas) becomes a thing?
Hey wait a minute — didn’t Pixar predict all this in Wall-E?
Obviously, Apple will cost reduce components through redesign and take advantage of quantity pricing power, and more performant hardware, but that isn't going to generate all that much impact on the next iteration.
Easy, and it allows for one of Apple’s preferred tricks: upsell.
There are plenty of ways to bring the price down and catch lower hanging fruit who would, and this is the kicker, purchase equivalent devices from competitors.
You amaze me with your lack of intellect...or is it just your narcissism?
Do you really believe that Apple would go to all the trouble, and the expense, to develop a UI that doesn't require a controller, market it at a two hour event and beyond, receive almost universal praise for that UI, just as an upsell "trick"?
And again, it’s half the price of the original Macintosh adjusted for inflation. Lots of people bought those. People spend on what they’re interested in.
Offering product tiers (good, better, best) isn’t a “trick”. Having an awesome MBP in the lineup in addition to MBAs isn’t tricking anyone. They’re options. Same with iPhone and iPad tiers, YMMV. My mom and I don’t have the same needs.
It would be supremely easy to implement and would reduce the BOM in terms of cost and complexity.
They need not be handheld either. Remember the suggestion of rings? Who knows!?
As for the idea of developing a UI at expense that doesn't require a controller and then accepting one, well, maybe the idea of using a mouse and keyboard with an iPad is beyond your comprehension. Oh well!
Intellect, you say?
Remember, I'm not saying they are going to do anything specifically.
I'm saying what could be done.
Just ideas.
I had to laugh though, at the 'it replaces' marketing. Made me think of the kitchen-gadget infomercials... it slices, it dices, if you had to replace all these functions...
My main issue with it as a product category, is that I'm not a big believer in spatial computing. There are vertical applications, but for the average person, I just can't see how it would be better than just watching at TV, using an iPad on the couch, or sitting at ones Mac on their desk. I suppose this partly depends on how comfortable it is, but is anyone going to want to wear one for many hours at a time? And, there's a reason I'm typing this into the forum, and not dictating it.
My summary so far: incredible technology, engineering, and industrial design. Very weak use-case.
They'll improve them every year working to streamline product and improve supply so they wind the the price down as they go. Till a new tech improvement lets them leap the pr-version forward enough to keep it distinct and have a non-pro version at longer price.
I think Gurman has lost his mind on this one. He's basically saying they'll eliminate everything that makes the VP experience something special to hit a lower price point, just to have a cheap version on the market, even if it doesn't give an experience anything like the VP. Doesn't seem like a very Apple-like approach to the issue of price.
I think this first version of the VP is the baseline. Anything with less functionality won't fly. Eventually there will be a gen 2 that extends it beyond that baseline while at the same time the component costs come down, and this gen 1 version will be sold alongside it for a lower price. But stripping components and functionality to turn it into a lesser experience is not something I think will happen.
To see an even bigger drop in price, Apple has to figure out how to deliver a comparable experience with less expensive components, and right now that is highly improbable. As such, what is quite doable is for the launch version to be offered at around $2,800 when the new version arrives offered at the $3,500 price point.
What you get with the launch version is the absolute minimum that a product like this requires to pull off all the transformative feats required to make it worth the bother. Take any of the capabilities away and you wind up with something not worth doing.
More often than not Apple plays a long game and as such that it could be three, four, five years before we see a sub-$2,500 version of this technology should surprise no one. It’s unlikely that we’ll see many if any competitors jump in to this space anytime soon so Apple can evolve this product on its own schedule.
iPhone SE
Non Pro iPhones
iPad
Entry level MacBooks
Entry level iMacs
I would go as far to guess that Apple does have a cheaper version that will ship mid year 2024.
I think this was a giant consumer feedback session from developers and the public.