 "Apple Vision Pro")
Apple is reportedly planning to conduct in-store demonstrations with the Vision Pro buyers that may last for up to 25 minutes. According to a news report on Bloomberg, Apple has hosted several employees at its offices in Cupertino, California, US to walk them through the process ahead of the Vision Pro launch on February 2.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple stores in the US are planning to have multiple demo units available along with dedicated sit-down areas where the presentation will take place. The demo would entail scanning the user's face with an app and checking for prescription information, if the user wears glasses. The demo unit will then be set-up with a light seal, foam cushion, lenses and band size put together according to the data collected. Gurman said that the stores will have light seals in more than 25 shapes, cushions in two sizes and multiple lenses for demos.
Once the device is ready, staff members will explain how to use the pointer using eyes and how to adjust the Digital Crown for switching between virtual and augmented reality. When calibrated, the staff at Apple store will take the users through a series of spatial pictures and videos and will let them scroll through the web using the headset.
In his report, Gurman said, “Apple expects to see an initial sales surge, when early adopters snap up the device, but then a tapering in demand,” so it has told the retail stores to maintain their inventory space accordingly.
Last week, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Apple will likely produce between 60,000 to 80,000 units of Vision Pro for its launch. In his post, Kuo said that he expects Apple to sell out the Vision Pro headset soon as the shipment is not large. He added that despite the high price and unclear product positioning of the headset, the user expectation from the product along with the base of core fans and heavy users will make it a sell out soon after the release.
Priced at $3,499, Vision Pro headset will be available in the US from February 2 with pre-orders starting on January 19. The mixed reality headset will likely be powered by Apple’s M2 chip. Gurman suggested that the chip on the headset will be a higher end variant of M2 with 10 GPU cores and 8 CPU cores.
