Economic Observer reporter Chen QijieAs a new product that CEO Tim Cook sees as ushering in the era of "spatial computing", Apple's first head-mounted display device, the Vision Pro, has received much attention after its release.
On February 2, the Vision Pro went on sale in the United States, and according to the official policy, consumers who purchased the product have a two-week return period. However, as the first batch of users of Vision Pro ushered in the final window for returns, it has been reported recently that many users have chosen to return the product one after another.
Word-of-mouth differentiation
More than two weeks after its launch, the consumer reputation of the Vision Pro has been divided. As for the immersive experience function of the Vision Pro, the user evaluation is actually quite positive. The reporter saw that many consumers praised Vision Pro for its silky interaction on social networking, which made people feel as if they were there, and it was "high-tech magic". However, after a period of experience, they still choose to return the product or have the idea of returning, the main reasons include heavy equipment, poor wearing comfort, less content, low cost performance of the product, etc.
A tech blogger who returned Vision Pro said on social media, "It's probably the most exciting technology I've ever tried, but I had a headache after 10 minutes of using it." Previously, Cult of Mac, which focuses on Apple's news, released two polls for readers and social platforms, and the results showed that 76% and 45% of respondents respectively said they would return Vision Pro. Cult of Mac said the magical experience of the Vision Pro may not be enough to convince buyers to keep the $3,499 (equivalent to about 2.00 yuan).50,000 yuan). Still, many early users looking for a refund felt that they would definitely return to the second generation of the Vision Pro if Apple fixed the device issue (and lowered**).
It is worth mentioning that some technology** also mentioned that according to the feedback of some Apple retail stores in the United States, the return situation of Vision Pro is not as serious as rumored, and it does not exceed the normal return range of Apple's new products.
Meta's "pulling".
At present, Meta (Facebook's parent company) products account for half of the global AR VR (augmented reality virtual reality) headset market. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), AR VR headset shipments are expected to grow by 46 percent in 20244%, mainly thanks to Meta's headset Quest 3 and Apple's Vision Pro. Among them, IDC expects Apple's headset to attract a lot of attention, but it may ship less than 200,000 units during the year. In comparison, Meta's shipments in the first three quarters of 2023 have already exceeded Apple's expected shipments by 10 times (accounting for 552% market share) and is likely to see year-on-year growth in 2024.
For the main competitor in the future, Meta's CEO Zuckerberg recently publicly released ** "Pull Step", which caused huge controversy. Zuckerberg said that from 9 factors such as price, content, comfort, and field of view, the $500 Quest 3 headset is not only more value for money than the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro, but also has a better product experience.
In response to the controversy, Zuckerberg added that he didn't want to mock Apple's Vision Pro, "I'm just putting the facts I saw today." I'm not saying they won't improve, but we will improve. And we're a fast-moving company, so I think we're probably going to go faster. ”
In the view of research institutions, Apple's entry into the headset market will undoubtedly bring new changes to the industry. According to a recent report released by Cinda**, the XR (extended reality) industry has been in the industry for many years, and Apple's entry into the industry will significantly improve the industry ecology and is expected to accelerate the development of the industry. In the long run, with the scale effect and technological innovation complementing each other, the resonance of hardware and software stimulates the formation of the terminal consumption ecology, which is expected to drive the rapid growth of the industrial chain.
But this impact is still limited, Huatai ** report believes that if it is assumed that the shipment of the first generation of Vision Pro products corresponds to the order of 500,000-1 million (units), the optimistic calculation of the first generation of products on the ** chain will be about 3 billion US dollars a year, accounting for 5% of the 60 billion US dollars of Apple's mobile phone, a significant difference of an order of magnitude, so this year's generation of products on the overall performance of the ** chain company is limited.