New reports suggest that a cheaper Apple Vision Pro is still coming – but it could be pricey.
Reported to cost around $2,000, does the budget Vision Pro have a place in the current VR headset market?
It's no secret that Apple produces some of the most popular devices out there. Somewhere in the region of 80 million iPhones are sold each cycle, while other devices like the Apple Watch, iPad and MacBook all have strangleholds on their respective consumers.
But there is one product which is still struggling to gain a foothold – the Apple Vision Pro. Unveiled last year and finally on sale in a number of markets, that device is an interesting one. Essentially a VR headset, Apple has leaned into the idea of Spatial Computing, in a bid to differentiate the device.
It's certainly a cool experience. I tried one for the first time recently, and was seriously impressed with the overall quality – albeit I wasn't able to get into the nitty gritty of working with the device.
Still, I was fairly engaged, and excited by the rumours of a cheaper variant. So you can imagine my disappointment when recent reports – courtesy of notable Apple insider, Mark Gurman – suggested a $2,000 price tag.
I'm not naive – I wasn't expecting miracles. I'm well aware that Apple products are expensive and that isn't going to change quickly. But I'm also well aware of the sweet spot for these devices. In my eyes, that's somewhere around the £1,000 mark. The MacBook Air M1 launched at that price and was a smash hit. It's about the price of a middle-of-the-road iPhone, too.
Double that price is tough to swallow – especially given the volume of changes needed to get the price down even that far. While nothing has been confirmed, rumours suggest that everything from cheaper materials to lesser displays will feature on the pared down spec sheet.
It's an even tougher pill to swallow when we look to the wider market. Devices like the Meta Quest 3S offer a lot of the features for a fraction of the price. In fact, at just £289.99, it's about 15% of the expected price tag.
I, for one, am really excited about further developments in this field. I'm convinced by the productivity angle, and I'd love to support the technology, on the way to it being brought to a smaller, more stylish form factor. Is this the device which will enact that change? It's too soon to tell. But I'm sceptical based on what we've heard so far.
