It"s been less than three months since Apple officially put its Vision Pro mixed reality headset on sale in early February 2024. So far, it has sold in just one market, the United States, and with a huge price tag of $3,499. Today, there"s an unconfirmed report that Apple has already cut its shipment unit plans for the Vision Pro, even before it starts selling the headset outside the US.
Noted and usually reliable Apple third-party analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on his Medium page today that, according to his sources, Apple has reduced the shipment numbers for the Vision Pro down to between 400,000 and 450,000 units for the year. Kuo said the previous expectation was that Apple would ship between 750,000 and 800.000 units of the headset.
Kuo points out that these reduced shipment numbers come even before Apple expands where the Vision Pro is being sold. In late March, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the headset would go on sale in China sometime in 2024.
In his report, Kuo says that Apple faces several challenges with the Vision Pro. Besides the high price, there"s also the comfort level of actually wearing the headset. Finally, he feels that there is currently a lack of major mixed reality applications that will work with the Vision Pro.
Kuo claims that Apple is reviewing its plans for releasing future mixed-reality headsets due to the cuts in shipment numbers. Some earlier rumors claimed Apple might launch the Vision Pro 2 in late 2025 or early 2026. Now, Kuo says that timeframe may not happen.
Apple will announce its regular quarterly financial numbers and discuss those numbers with financial analysts on Thursday, April 25. We will have to see if the company offers any info on sales and shipment numbers for the Vision Pro.