Although not participating, the Apple Vision Pro had a noticeable presence at CES 2024
Although Apple Vision Pro device didn't make an appearance at the recently concluded CES 2024 in Las Vegas, its presence was still strong as the company continued to make announcements during the event. Several other companies also unveiled potential competitors at CES, leading to the inevitable comparisons to the Vision Pro.
On January 8, at the opening of CES 2024, Apple announced that it will Vision Pro be available for pre-orders on their official website starting January 19th, i.e. today. Retail sales will begin on February 2, with in-store demonstrations scheduled for the first week. Despite the fact that CES is an important annual technology event, attention is still focused on the Apple Vision Pro, as it represents the most innovative product line from Apple in almost nine years.
The official launch of the Apple Vision Pro comes at a time of crisis as Apple's revenue declines. In addition, Apple is facing a crisis in sales of the Apple Watch. The built-in blood oxygen monitoring feature in its new Series 9 and Ultra 2 products has been declared by the ITC to infringe technical patents held by another medical device company, Masimo.
This led to a ban on imports and sales that came into effect in October 2023. Given that Apple's request to overturn the ban was rejected by the Supreme Court of Appeals, the company is forced to pull the controversial products from the shelves, further affecting the company's revenues.
Therefore, Vision Pro bears a huge responsibility for reviving Apple's hardware sales, even though s with a hefty price tag of $3,499 considers it a product aimed at a specific market, he writes DigiTimes.
AppleTim Cook, CEO of Apple, has high expectations for Vision Pro, believing that it can expand the possibilities of computing from desktops and mobile devices to the “spatial” world, moving from smartphones and computers to wearable devices.
It will act as a consumer electronics product for entertainment purposes such as gaming and media viewing, while also serving as a platform for next-generation computing and a true tool for content applications. Spotify and YouTube are some of the apps that won't be supported from launch.
Today, before the announced start of sales of Apple Vision Pro devices, the sales site was not available due to overload
Reports suggested that the initial production volume of the Vision Pro would be only 60,000 to 80,000 units, which would sell out quickly among developers, professionals and Apple fans. Still, most analysts believe the Vision Pro won't contribute significantly to Apple's revenue initially, with total sales in 2024 not expected to exceed 500,000 units.
Potential Apple Vision Pro competitors
In addition to the challenges in selling the product itself, potential competitors for the Apple Vision Pro also appeared at CES. The “Spatial Content Creation” solution of the company Sony is one of the few that has attracted attention. This solution included an MR device equipped with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 platform and a single 4K OLED display panel with a unique ring controller. However, this solution is not aimed at the gaming market, but is designed for professionals involved in the creation of 3D content, such as engineers and 3D animators.
Another notable product is XREAL's AR glasses, the Air2 Ultra. It is made of titanium alloy and supports features like 6DoF (degree of freedom) and motion tracking. It uses a Micro OLED display from Sony, and supports full HD resolution, 120Hz screen refresh and 500 nits brightness.
Instagram/twitchJust before CES 2024, Qualcomm announced the new generation Snapdragon XR2+ Gen2, which will be used in an MR device developed in collaboration with Samsung Electronics and Google. That device is certainly positioned as a competitor to Vision Pro.
However, a closer look at the features and positioning of these products suggests that they may not directly compete with the Apple Vision Pro. Sony's new MR solution, despite similar hardware specs and capabilities to the Vision Pro, seems aimed at content creators rather than general consumers or corporations. XREAL's Air2 Ultra is an AR glasses product, which is not the same as Vision Pro's MR capabilities and cannot provide immersive applications such as gaming or watching movies.
As for Qualcomm's new XR platform, it is only a reference design and is currently limited to collaboration with Samsung and Google. With a concept prototype yet to be seen, it doesn't pose a real threat to Apple in the short term.
The most serious competitor for the Apple Vision Pro remains the current XR market leader, Meta, as its Quest 3 and Pro series products overlap with the Vision Pro in terms of features, application scenarios, and even target markets.