Not a good sign for Apple's newest little gewgaw:
Apple has slashed its shipping estimates for Vision Pro, according to a new Ming-Chi Kuo analyst report. Kuo says that Apple is now targeting shipments between 400,000 and 450,000 units for Vision Pro this year. This is down from the initial market consensus of between 700,000 and 800,000 units.
Demand for the headsets have "fallen sharply beyond expectations." It's possible that the company may not release a new model in 2025, with the company reportedly "[expecting] Vision Pro shipments to decline YoY in 2025."
Oof.
This is grim news for Apple. This is a company that for decades has sustained itself by producing the best, greatest, most innovative tech products on the consumer market. When they flop, it's not a pretty sight.
Of course, they've done it before. Indeed, the company sort of stumbled right out the gate with 1983's Apple Lisa, a technical success but a commercial failure.
What about Apple's brief, awful foray into the video game industry, with the Apple Pippin? Remember that? No? Yeah, we don't either.
Or the Power Mac G4 Cube? You may have seen these at local area elementary schools circa 2001, but that's about as far as they got. This thing flopped like a mountain trout in the bed of an Alumacraft.
So it happens! And it should be noted that we reviewed the Vision Pro a short while ago and found it, well, wanting:
Some issues with the device:
There really isn't a lot to do on the Vision Pro that you can't do on a TV. And the TV doesn't require you to wear an uncomfortable headset, and there is WAY less eye strain when looking around the edges of the picture. ...
There are very few apps. And the ones that are made for Vision Pro are a mixed bag. ...
[The tech specs are] impressive. But what does it mean for the consumer? Well, in practice it means you have a much more expensive (and heavy) version of a Quest 3, without the controllers.
So we can't exactly say we're surprised by this development. Nor will we be all that surprised to see Apple revise its Vision Pro strategy even further and more drastically.
Apple has come a long way since the revolutionary days of Steve Jobs. Signs aren't great for where it's going.
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