Apple's long-awaited headset is finally here. The tech giant unveiled the Vision Pro at its WWDC earlier this month, Apple's first major product launch event since the launch of the Apple Watch in 2015, and perhaps its most ambitious product since the iPhone.
The mixed reality headset allows users to immerse themselves in virtual reality (VR) or engage in augmented reality (AR) interactions, meaning they can see the real world around them with digital effects. But at $3500, it's not exactly cheap.
Apple used this pricing strategy to enter this new market - setting a high price for the initial product, trying to sell it first to early adopters willing to pay more for the latest technology, and then gradually lowering the price as the technology evolves and the company introduces new models to attract other consumers in the market. This is a marked difference from the way Meta's platform entered the market. Meta's upcoming Quest 3 VR head-mounted display will cost just $499, making it more of a mass-market device than a high-end headset.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke directly to investors about his vision for the metaverse and his belief that the "embodied Internet" will be the next central computing platform. Apple's presentation, however, did not present as compelling a vision of the metaverse as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sought to demonstrate. In addition, Apple avoided using the terms AR and VR in its presentation, even though Vision Pro offers both experiences. CEO Tim Cook described the device as a space computer. Judging by the statements made at the launch event, Apple does not seem to see the headset primarily as a portal to some version of the metaverse. Instead, it sees it as a new computing device that people can freely play with.
Apple's entry into the head-mounted device market seems to be more advantageous than Meta's. While the price difference means that the two products are not necessarily direct competitors, Meta's efforts to build a metaverse (and create a market for its Quest device) have not yet yielded the expected results.
On the other hand, Apple has a lot of experience with technical hardware and is not pushing a vision of a digital world that most people don't seem to want. It's unclear whether the Vision Pro will succeed, but at this price, it doesn't have to be a huge bestseller. It just needs to create hype and build public interest in a future headset device, and Apple has always had experience with this type of marketing, judging by its past track record.