Apple's Vision Pro is now on sale with prices starting from $3,499, but there's a huge catch — you have to be in the United States if you want to get your hands on one. That fact has seen people travel from other countries to import Vision Pro or place orders and then have their new spatial computer couriered across the globe. But one day, an as-yet unconfirmed day, none of that will be needed. Apple Vision Pro will go on sale internationally, and a new report suggests that it might happen relatively soon, too.
We'd previously seen claims that there would be a second wave of Vision Pro launches relatively soon after its US-only launch, and now a report has put a more firm date on that as well as attaching the global launch to one country specifically. According to that report, Apple will bring its spatial computer to China "as early as April and late as May," but the company has yet to confirm as much.
That report cites unnamed people within Apple's supply chain as the source of this information, noting that Apple's Tim Cook recently said that he was unsure when the headset would reach China before adding that "it will be soon." If that's correct, some of those outside the United States may be picking up new headsets sooner rather than later.
Coming to an Apple Store near you soon?
This latest report comes via IT Home and suggests that Apple is starting to get its ducks in a row ahead of the big release in China. The report, based on sources speaking with Asia's Wall Street News, said that "the registration process of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is nearing completion," suggesting that Apple is now well on the way to getting the required authorization to launch the Vision Pro in China.
No information has yet been shared as to how much Chinese customers can expect the headset to cost when it goes on sale locally, but it's important to note that the $3,499 list price in the United States is exclusive of taxes.
China is unlikely to be the only country included in a second wave of launches, of course. Previous reports by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman hinted that Apple is "considering China, Canada, and the UK as some of the first markets to receive the headset."
Just like in the US, international buyers can expect the base model Apple Vision Pro to ship with 256GB of storage. An extra $200 sees the storage increase to 512GB while those willing to spend an additional $200 can upgrade to 1TB. Apple also offers several accessories including the $199 Vision Pro Travel Case while a second Vision Pro battery will also cost the same $199. Those who want to have somewhere to put that battery can pay $50 for Belkin's Vision Pro battery holster, too. International buyers can expect those accessories to also go on sale at the same time as the Vision Pro but again, pricing is unclear.
The Vision Pro has now been on sale for a few days and we're still learning new things about Apple's big bet on spatial computing. It was recently discovered that Vision Pro owners can remotely install apps from an iPhone, but not all of the news has been good. Some users have started to report strange Vision Pro bugs including issues relating to apps not working properly and windows refusing to close when told to. Hopefully, a future visionOS update will address these issues, however.
