Production difficulties and the complex design of Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro mixed reality headset have reportedly led it to cut its internal sales target of 1 million units sold in 2024, amid fears it won’t be able to. produce enough of his latest material.
As I mentioned to FT, these production issues would also have pushed back plans for a cheaper Apple Vision Pro, which will obviously be welcomed by many as one of the main talking points of the headset reveal is price. impressive $3,499.
In terms of production changes, sources from Apple and Luxshare, the Chinese contractor that will first assemble the Apple Vision Pro, said they expect to produce less than 400,000 units in 2024. Also important to note is that Luxshare appears to be the only company that will start by assembling the headset.
Two other sources from specific Apple Vision Pro component suppliers in China revealed that Apple only orders enough parts to be able to build 130,000 to 150,000 units in 2024.
If any of these predictions turn out to be correct, they would be well short of the previously mentioned internal sales target of 1 million units, set by Apple for the first year after its launch in 2024.
The FT notes that making two micro-OLED displays per eye and accompanying outward lens is perhaps the tech giant’s biggest challenge, especially since the displays “offer a resolution beyond anything currently on the market, while the outer lens exposes the helmet wearer’s eyes to the outside world. »
It was Sony and chipmaker TSMC that provided the displays for the Apple Vision Pro prototypes, and Apple is clearly unhappy with the throughput of vendors and the frustrating number of “flawless” displays since.
Jay Goldberg, founder of technology consultancy D/D Advisors, said the Apple Vision Pro is “the most complex consumer device ever built” and that the $3,499 price tag – whose screens are the most expensive part – was fixed due to Apple’s understanding “The cost of production inefficiency, knowing that manufacturing yields were particularly low compared to mature products in Apple’s portfolio. »
“Someone has to pay for this,” Goldberg said. “I think Apple went into this with a lot of ‘poor performance’ baked into the model. There’s a lot of technology in the Vision Pro and they knew it was going to take time. it’s time to scale it. Apple knows it won’t make any money from this in the first year. »
Assuming these hurdles can be lifted, analysts like those at Canalys believe the Apple Vision Pro will have a user base of over 20 million five years after launch. Only time will tell if this is true.
For more, check out all the other details you need to know about the Apple Vision Pro and everything Apple announced at its latest WWDC presentation.
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Adam Pankhurst is a reporter for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @employee and on tic.
