Journalist Wen Qiao Zheng Yuhang
On February 2nd local time, Apple's highly anticipated Vision Pro headset began to be released in the United States, with CEO Cook present and Apple stores in New York bustling with traffic.
In Apple's vision, Vision Pro represents the beginning of spatial computing. Despite its high price of $3499, Vision Pro has still sparked a craze on social media platforms, with technology enthusiasts wearing headsets to drive, exercise, cross the road, and take the subway, competing to publish in-depth reviews.
But in stark contrast to this trend is the relatively lackluster market response - on the day Vision Pro was launched, Apple's stock price fell 0.54%. From February 2nd to 8th, Apple's stock price rose only 1.33%.
From the perspective of market acceptance, there are mixed reviews from the outside world regarding Vision Pro. Some analysts believe that it may be difficult to convert it into a substantial revenue driver, while others believe that it has the potential to become a game changer in the industry in the future.
Dan Ives, Managing Director of WedBush Securities in the United States, stated in a review email sent to the Daily Economic News that Vision Pro represents a new beginning. With 2.2 billion active iOS devices worldwide, Apple's ecosystem will provide a huge market for it.
On the day of product launch, technology enthusiasts in China immediately went to American stores to pick up their products. The reporter found one of the Vision Pro enthusiasts for in-depth communication and experienced wearing the product.
Vision Pro body photographed by journalist Zheng Yuhang
Vision Pro Experience: Four Advantages and Disadvantages
Vision Pro has sparked a craze on social media platforms, with major media outlets including The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, and CNBC publishing in-depth review articles in addition to tech enthusiasts. Based on the personal experience of each journalist and foreign media evaluation, we have roughly summarized the four advantages and disadvantages of Vision Pro.
Advantage 1: Amazing visual clarity
According to an Apple enthusiast, "Due to the fact that Vision Pro does not use true optical perspective, but rather records through multiple external cameras, which are processed by built-in chips and then form light feedback to the human eye, the real experience delay is very low and quite stunning."
OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy stated on the X platform that the visual clarity of Vision Pro far exceeds that of any previous device, which is amazing. After putting on the device, the content completely rendered by virtual reality (such as screen display) is exceptionally clear, making reading effortless.
Vision Pro screen capture
Advantage 2: Creative "spatial computing" experience
According to CNBC's evaluation, Vision Pro provides a new experience that Apple calls "spatial computing". "You sit in your own world, look at the digital world, and then place different applications around you," CNBC wrote. "This is reminiscent of the iPhone era, when Apple introduced a multi touch display, which changed the way we interact with phones."
Vision Pro screen capture
Karpathy praised this experience, "When designing and thinking about how to arrange all applications in my space, I feel extremely creative. My thinking is completely activated, and my imagination is infinite."
Advantage 3: Hand eye tracking technology achieves a leap forward
For Vision Pro enthusiasts, their line of sight is equivalent to a pointer for operation, and the device tracks the eyes through sensors. The evaluations by CNBC, The Verge, and Karpathy all indicate a significant leap in the accuracy of eye tracking, which is very impressive.
In practical operation, the enthusiast also gave feedback that whether it is opening an application, viewing a picture album, watching a movie, or browsing a webpage, the tracking of "eye movements" and "gestures" is very smooth. After getting started for a while, even smaller icons can be accurately operated, and there is no phenomenon of operation getting stuck or unrecognizable.
Tracking and evaluation of "eye movements" and "gestures" by journalist Zheng Yuhang
Advantage 4: High connectivity with the apple ecosystem
It has been mentioned in numerous feedbacks that Vision Pro has a very high degree of integration with the Apple ecosystem. This is precisely because Apple hopes to turn Vision Pro into a complete device, on par with Mac and iPad in the Apple ecosystem.
At the same time, the freshly released Vision Pro also has some imperfections.
Disadvantage 1: Insufficient user experience
Karpathy believes that Vision Pro deviates to some extent from Apple's consistent brand image. In some aspects, the product may have been highly polished, while in others it appears very rough, insufficiently thought through, and even clearly problematic. For example, he encountered bugs such as FaceID being unable to recognize and unlock, and iMessage not displaying properly.
The audiophile also gave feedback that after the user has a certain level of proficiency, they hope to operate quickly. There are also some small bugs in "eye movement" and "gesture" tracking, such as wanting to select but never being able to select, or accidentally deleting an important file, which is frustrating. Just like the facial recognition and fingerprint recognition on an iPhone, it is easy to not recognize after too long, so it needs to be reset. In the past week of experiencing Vision Pro, I have already reset the "eye movement" and "gesture" settings due to this issue.
"This gives the impression that the product seems to have been rushed to the market, with basic user interfaces and user experience interactions not being fully developed, lacking careful consideration and debugging," Karpathy wrote.
Disadvantage 2: Not lightweight enough
This is a widely roast problem. The weight of Vision Pro itself is between 600~650g. In most people's experiences, weight is an undeniable drawback, and even with the necessary double headbands, its existence cannot be forgotten.
During the evaluation, Verge mentioned that "the most eye-catching thing about the hardware after trying it on for a period of time is that it is very heavy." He stated that although the dual ring design maintains stability, it does not truly reduce the overall weight of the headset when worn.
According to feedback from reporters, wearing it for a long time feels like pressure on the forehead. After removing the headband after wearing it for 30 minutes, there are also red pressure marks on the forehead.
Disadvantage 3: Digital characters are not natural enough
Although some people think the effect of digital avatars is great, many foreign media evaluations have shown that Vision Pro's digital avatars are not natural enough, and there may even be some "terrifying valley effects".
The Verge evaluation points out that there is still a long way to go in this technology. "In Musk's words, digital characters are indeed impressive, but they are also very bad," the review wrote.
Disadvantage 4: Expensive price
The starting price of Vision Pro is as high as $3499, far higher than the popular Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset. According to reports, the display screen is the main reason why Vision Pro is so expensive. They are the core of the Vision Pro experience and also the reason for the normal operation of the entire device. The two displays worn by the head display represent a huge leap in display technology, both of which are micro OLEDs with 23 million pixels and a size of only 7.5 microns, about the size of red blood cells.
The response from the capital market is relatively lukewarm
On the day Vision Pro went on sale, Apple's stock price failed to rise as expected and fell 0.54%. From the 2nd to the 8th, Apple's stock price only rose by 1.36%. The market gave a relatively flat feedback, which formed a sharp contrast with the hot evaluation trend on the Internet.
In the opinion of King Lip, Chief Strategist at BakerAvenue Wealth Management, his impression of Vision Pro is not as profound. "If we look at the previously released products - AirPods or iWatch, these products are obviously innovative for the masses, and these devices have led to Apple's profit growth and revenue surge. But for a device priced at $3500, even if it is excellent, I am not sure if it is an innovation for the masses, but more likely it is a novel toy for the 'privileged class'."
Cost is a major factor that is not favored by Vision Pro. According to foreign media, there are many companies that own headsets. As a competitor to Apple, the popular Meta Quest 2 is priced at only $500, while Lenovo's recently released ThinkReality VRX starts at $1299. The high price of Vision Pro may be difficult to translate into substantial revenue drivers.
On the other hand, some argue that the limitations of Vision Pro itself may imply that it cannot truly become popular in the market. The Verge claims that the Apple Vision Pro is the best consumer headset ever, and that's precisely where the problem lies.
Although headsets are not a new concept, Apple is the first company to aim to turn headsets into a space computer, hoping to bring space computing to the forefront of the market through Vision Pro. The company's vision is to make Vision Pro a complete device that can be on par with Mac and iPad in Apple's device ecosystem.
To achieve this goal, Apple has to make some trade-offs. For example, when all these technologies are integrated into the head display, the product is heavy and Apple has to use an external battery. The battery can provide power for two and a half hours. Once the battery is disconnected, the power supply will be completely cut off. According to actual measurements by reporters, the battery module can only be used normally for 2-3 hours when fully charged.
For Apple itself, the company is facing a problem of weak growth. For the entire fiscal year 2023, the company's total net sales amounted to $383.285 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3%; The net profit was 96.995 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 3%. The company recorded a fourth consecutive quarter of revenue decline, setting a record for the longest decline since 2001.
On February 2nd, Apple released its first quarter financial report for the 2024 fiscal year, with a net revenue of $119.575 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2%; The net profit was 33.916 billion US dollars, an increase of 13% over the same period. Although net revenue and net profit recorded year-on-year growth, revenue in the Greater China region decreased by 13% year-on-year. Analysts are concerned that facing fierce competition from Chinese electronic products, Apple is losing market share in China, the most critical growth region.
At the beginning of this year, due to a patent infringement lawsuit, the Apple Watch in the United States lost its ability to monitor blood oxygen, and it is expected that product sales will not perform well, which is even worse for Apple.
Vision Pro, Game Changer?
In this situation, whether Vision Pro can become a "game changer" and bring substantial profits to Apple has become a focus of industry discussion. Although the capital market response has been mediocre and the industry is filled with voices that "Vision Pro may not really be popular in the market", at the same time, there are also many people who are optimistic that Vision Pro will become a game changer in the industry.
Dan Ives told reporters that Vision Pro represents a new beginning, with 2.2 billion active iOS devices (users) worldwide, and Apple's ecosystem will provide a huge market for it.
"Our industry survey shows that the next version of Vision Pro 2 will be released in the range of less than $2000, with the possibility of 2-3 models. In the coming years, Vision Pro will have a size similar to sunglasses and provide users with a wider range of coverage and features." He said, "Given its strong pre order volume, it is expected that Apple's sales will reach 600000 units in 2024, and by the fiscal year 2025, Vision Pro's sales will exceed 1 million units."
Meanwhile, he believes that in the future, Apple will strive to integrate generative AI into headsets, which will mark the beginning of a new growth area for Apple's golden user base.
"This is Apple's first step into the AI field, and we expect Apple to first discuss establishing an independent AI app store at WWDC this summer. Vision Pro's ultimate goal is to work with iPhones and other Apple devices in the coming years, and many AI use cases will explode in areas such as health, fitness, and sports.".
Bank of America estimates that Vision Pro can increase Apple's earnings per share by 68-89 cents over the next five years. Morgan Stanley predicts that Apple's headphone business will conservatively increase to an annual revenue of $4 billion in four years.
In addition, many venture capitalists believe that Vision Pro will bring vast opportunities in the enterprise field. Morgan Stanley stated that the timing for its adoption is ripe, especially in areas such as virtual simulation, digital showrooms, remote training, and virtual marketing.
Brad Harrison, founder of early venture capital firm Scout Ventures, believes that Apple's ecosystem is a guarantee for businesses to truly integrate Vision Pro and the device into the workplace. Apple is very familiar with enterprise applications, and this month the company has incorporated Vision Pro into Apple's device management process, allowing IT teams to manage this device like they handle iPhones, iPads, watches, and Macs.
Harrison believes, "We have reached a turning point where hardware availability, ease of use, integration with existing platforms, and demand will lead to true growth based on AR business."
