Apple is still "waiting for the wind to come", VisionPro sales in China are quiet, no queues or scalpers are seen
"Welcome to the era of spatial computing." More than four months after Apple VisionPro was launched in the United States, the Chinese version is finally here.
VisionPro is an XR headset with multiple cameras, like a pair of "big glasses". The wearer can operate it only through gestures, glasses and voice.
The Chinese version of Apple VisionPro is officially on sale today, available in three versions: 256GB, 512GB and 1TB, with starting prices of 29,999 yuan, 31,499 yuan and 32,999 yuan respectively.
Apple retail stores offer 30-minute trial wear and one-on-one service for VisionPro. The reporter found on the official website that the retail stores in Huanmao, Jing'an, Qibao and other stores are fully booked, and the appointments for other stores have been scheduled until July 3 and later. However, the sale of the Chinese version of VisionPro did not trigger a queue at the scene, and there were few "scalpers".
Four months ago, when VisionPro was first launched in the United States, its starting price of US$3,400 still caused hot sales. Unfortunately, VisionPro reached its peak as soon as it debuted, and user enthusiasm did not last long.
The purchasing price of VisionPro on domestic second-hand trading platforms has dropped from a maximum of 70,000 yuan in early February to around 20,000 yuan now. Even so, the actual transaction volume is still not high.
AR and VR technologies were all the rage a few years ago, and the industry has reached a consensus: without a content ecosystem, XR technology will fall into a vicious cycle - too little content to attract enough users, developers cannot make money, and even less content investment means even smaller user base.
Therefore, building a new content ecosystem has become the key to whether VisionPro can survive. In June, Apple released the VisionOS2 operating system at the WWDC developer conference. Currently, there are more than 2,000 VisionOS apps and more than 1.5 million compatible iOS and iPadOS apps.
Many domestic Internet companies have also launched VisionOS applications, such as Taobao, JD.com, WeChat, Migu Video, etc. Taking Taobao VisionPro as an example, Taobao has opened up complete shopping functions such as login, search, message, order, etc. Users can directly choose and purchase billions of massive products on VisionPro.
The reporter saw that on the Taobao VisionPro version, the product information flow is larger and more three-dimensional. Consumers can directly feel the material of the sofa and the texture of the clothes, turn the refrigerator and washing machine 360 degrees, open them to see the internal structure and details, and place the 1:1 restored products in different locations at home to see how they match the environment. Xiaomi SU7 also opens online reservations for "virtual test drives", which will bring users the experience of "test driving at home" in the future.
Taobao VisionPro version shopping interface.
Although Apple has worked with many partners to create high-quality content for XR and try to replicate the success of the iPhone App Store, it seems that XR has not yet reached the peak of popularity.
The capital market was the first to respond. When Apple's stock price repeatedly hit new highs, the price of VisionPro was announced and Apple's stock price quickly plunged.
The market's concerns are not without reason. Apple lowered its VisionPro shipments in 2024 to 400,000-450,000 units, far lower than the previous market estimate of 700,000-800,000 units. Zuckerberg's "10 million users" theory believes that 10 million users are the "singularity" of XR hardware, otherwise hardware, application, and content developers cannot provide conditions for sustained and stable profits. Obviously, VisionPro's annual shipments of 400,000 units cannot support this "singularity."
This time, how long will the XR trend last? Perhaps the giants have already given the answer.
