Apple 'Vision Pro' Expands Release to France, Germany, UK, etc... "High Price is a Limitation"

Indoryang Falls Short of Meta's 'Quest'

Apple is expanding the release countries for its mixed reality (MR) headset, the 'Vision Pro,' but there are concerns that sustained sales will be difficult due to its high price.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to US-based CNBC on the 12th (local time), Apple is launching the Vision Pro in countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Apple released the Vision Pro in the United States in February and began sales last month in three Asian countries: China (including Hong Kong), Japan, and Singapore.

Brian Ma of market research firm IDC said there is anticipation since the Vision Pro is a relatively new product line and comes from Apple, a leader in the information technology (IT) industry, but it is uncertain whether the initial interest can be sustained. The Vision Pro is priced at $3,499 (about 4.82 million KRW, based on the US market), which is more expensive than competing products like Meta’s Quest 3, and the Apple application ecosystem available for the Vision Pro is not yet fully developed.

IDC estimated that after the Vision Pro’s release in February, first-quarter shipments were under 100,000 units (around 91,000), less than half of Meta’s Quest headset shipments. It also predicted that US sales would drop by about 76% in the third quarter but expected this to be offset by expanding the release countries. IDC believes that a product priced at about half the current cost will need to be released around next year to rekindle customer interest, projecting global sales of approximately 340,000 units in the fourth quarter of next year.

Market research firm Omnia forecasted Vision Pro sales of 350,000 units this year and 750,000 units next year, reaching 1.7 million units by 2026. However, these figures lag significantly behind the iPad, which sold nearly 20 million units in its first year of release.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.