According to several people directly involved in the production of components, Apple has significantly scaled back production of the Vision Pro since early summer, reports The Information. Luxshare, which assembles the Vision Pro, has been informed by Apple that production may cease in November. Currently, Luxshare is producing about 1,000 Vision Pro units per day, down from a peak of about 2,000 units per day.
According to The Information, this decision indicates that Apple has built up enough inventory to meet demand. So far, suppliers have produced components for about 500,000 to 600,000 headsets.
Market research firm Counterpoint Research estimates that Apple sold about 370,000 headsets in the first three quarters of this year and will sell only 50,000 more by the end of the year.
Apple is now focusing on a cheaper model, known internally as the N109, which could be released by the end of 2025. Apple plans to produce a total of 4 million units of the device, The Information reports, citing a person familiar with the supply chain.
It was too expensive and too janky* on release.
VR is awesome, but it can’t be priced above consoles, buggy, and uncomfortable out of the box if you want decent adoption rates.
Unlike consoles, you can’t easily show off its merits via traditional media. The consumer needs to actually experience it to understand it, which is very hard at high price points. Get the price down so you can generate significant word-of-mouth and it will catch on.
I bought several Quest headsets back when I could afford it and gave them to family, and they’re all addicted now, even though they weren’t gamers before. Even my 88 year old dad is into it. But they had to see it for themselves. No amount of telling them made them interested.
I feel like Apple’s team doesn’t understand this. It’s too bad, because VR shouldn’t be stagnating and Apple absolutely could be leading in that space. I say this as a software and firmware designer of 30+ years.
I have a Quest headset before Meta took it over. I really enjoyed it for some time, but I think what others said was true insofar as it felt "lonely". Also, besides a few killer apps which I thoroughly enjoyed ... I didn't use it much afterwards though.
What apps do you or your family use regularly?
The Red Matter series has impressed the hell outta me (photoreal graphics, great story, and especially the second one with puzzles and limited combat), Moss 1 & 2 (hoping for a 3), my dad and BIL like Walkabout Mini Golf so we play that as a family, Shadowgate (decent fantasy RPG), Tsuro (board game), Myst (pure nostalgia), In Death.
It does feel a bit lonely, but not any lonelier than normal for me because I gave up on multiplayer years ago (it wasn’t fun as a girl when voice chat became necessary).
Every time I’ve tried multiplayer on Quest, it’s been a daycare centre, so if you really like multiplayer games, you’ll probably not enjoy that. I wish games (like among us) would pair people with their own age group (or maybe they do and all of Quest is a daycare, who knows).
If you want to try playing again, pm me if you want my info. The newer games are much better than a few years ago.
e: oh, new game called I Am Cat that I’ve just started. It’s in early access and nothing visually impressive, has bugs, etc, but it has promise. You play as a cat.