Apple Vision Pro launches in the US this February for $3500

Apple has announced that their Vision Pro headset will launch in the US next month on 2nd February 2024, with pre-order going live on 19th January.

Apple’s first generation virtual and augmented reality headset – they label it as a ‘spatial computer’ – will start at $3499 with 256GB of storage. Prescription lenses will be available for $149.

“The era of spatial computing has arrived,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple Vision Pro is the most advanced consumer electronics device ever created. Its revolutionary and magical user interface will redefine how we connect, create, and explore.”

As revealed last June, the main intent with the Vision Pro is to lay out a new paradigm for Apple computing within an augmented reality space, projecting apps and windows into a view of your surroundings that is being captured by cameras built into the headset. The headset doesn’t require the use of controllers in your hands, instead using eye-tracking for focus and then a finger tapping gesture to interact.

But it will also do full VR as well, tuning out the world around you if you want to get all Heavy Rain with your spreadsheets, if you want to try and block out the fact that you’re sat in an economy seat on a plane while you watch a film, or get some VR gaming in.

Vision Pro supports the Apple Arcade game library, with over 250 games that can be blown up to play on gigantic virtual screens, but there will also be spatial games including Game Room, What the Golf?, and Super Fruit Ninja.

And that’s where Apple will have the stiffest competition. The Vision Pro is a massively premium product for launch, and for gaming it will compete with VR headsets that are much, much cheaper. The Meta Quest 3 is a competing standalone headset with similar capabilities, but starts at just $500. The PlayStation VR 2 has to be combined with a PS5, but that will still come to less than $1000, and there’s PC VR set ups as well (perhaps with a Quest as a USB headset) for under $2000. All of these have significantly wider libraries of VR games.

Vision Pro also has some technical and design drawbacks. Apple’s used metal and glass for its construction, forcing them to offload the weight of a battery to be an external pack, and there’s the frankly quite goofy way that it has an outward-facing screen that renders eyes of the wearer. There’s also reports that production is being limited by the amount of screen panels that Apple can acquire.

It’s likely that the first generation Vision Pro will be an expensive curio that Apple use as a jumping off point for future devices. Similar to Apple Watch, they have certain ideas of how it will be used, but are likely to adapt and change future headsets and the software once it’s actually being used by regular people. Will that see a greater emphasis on gaming? A non-“pro” headset that features a cheaper, lighter design? We’ll have to wait and see.

Source: Apple