“The honeymoon is already over” between Apple Vision Pro customers and reality, writes the Verge. True, the technology is outrageously cool, but is it ready for primetime? Not only is the $3,500 price tag out of reach for most people, but the actual daily usefulness of the device is dubious despite its sci-fi features.
Early adopters, always ready to try the next “best thing,” are already noticing, and the returns are starting to flood in:
It’s no coincidence that there’s been an uptick on social media of Vision Pro owners saying they’re returning their $3,500 headsets in the past few days. Apple allows you to return any product within 14 days of purchase — and for the first wave of Vision Pro buyers, we’re right about at that point.
Comfort is among the most cited reasons for returns. People have said the headset gives them headaches and triggers motion sickness. The weight of the device, and the fact that most of it is front-loaded, has been another complaint. Parker Ortolani, The Verge’s product manager, told me that he thought using the device led to a burst blood vessel in his eye. At least one other person noted they had a similar experience with redness.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not eviscerating Apple for trying to get ahead of the curve. New tech is almost always overpriced and underwhelming, and it takes time before it’s ready for mass consumption. Remember the Betamax? If you don’t, trust me, it was a vision way ahead of its time.
But the Apple Vision Pro, while very cool, is not ready to become part of our daily lives.
Two of our excellent RedState tech experts had fascinating takes on the technology:
Brandon Morse: Apple's 'Vision Pro' Is the Infancy of Technology That Society Will Soon Revolve Around
Ben Kew: Five Reasons Why the Apple Vision Pro Is Doomed for Failure VIP
As cool as it is, it apparently causes headaches:
Can’t wait to return the Vision Pro, probably the most mind blowing piece of tech I’ve ever tried.
— Rjey (@RjeyTech) February 14, 2024
Can’t deal with these headaches after 10 minutes of use though.
I was at the local mall the other night, so I popped into the Apple store to check it out while my wife did that shopping thing. The techno-dude said the half-hour demonstrations were already booked through the evening and into the next day. All the Pros displayed were locked down tight and you could do no more than touch them.
“How are sales?” I asked the uber-cool techno-man. “I mean, I know it’s groundbreaking, but how are people dealing with that hefty price tag?”
“Oh it’s great,” he assured me. He went on to say that Apple had made 500,000 units and that 200,000 had already been sold. I had no idea whether he was just gaslighting me; he was certainly extremely enthusiastic—but he turned out to be right.
However:
I will say, it seems like an alarming number of people are returning their Apple Vision Pros now that the return window is coming to an end for initial buyers.
— Jason W (@jmwilt21) February 14, 2024
I'm really curious what percentage of the sales actually keep the device. Up to this point I assumed vision pro would… pic.twitter.com/ui1iskUTUD
I'm really curious what percentage of the sales actually keep the device. Up to this point I assumed vision pro would be a success, but now I'm not so sure. Then again, I'm basing this off of people I see on X, so who knows if that reflects the majority of buyers.
Exactly. The device does face serious challenges:
But the hardware isn’t the only issue. Another common complaint is the Vision Pro doesn’t offer enough productivity relative to the price. One user noted on Threads that looking at Figma screens made them feel dizzy but that the device also wasn’t applicable to their work. Another engineer wrote on the social media platform X that the “coding experience failed to convince [him]” and focusing issues caused headaches.
“If I’m not using this for productivity, and if I don’t love it for entertainment, and if there aren’t enough games to play on it - I just can’t justify keeping it,” one Reddit user wrote.
I remember when my best friend called me (on a landline, no less) way back in the day, and said, you have to come to the Apple store right freakin' now. Although I was skeptical at first, I will always remember that incredible moment when I first held this newfangled thing called an iPhone... within minutes I realized that this was something different—a game-changing device—but even then, I had no idea how profoundly it would change the world. iPhone and later its Android-powered counterparts have transformed the way we interact, how we consume news, how we socialize—everything.
The Apple Vision Pro may be the wave of the future—but it is not yet the wave of the present. One day, we may wear such technology in our eyeglasses, or maybe even in our brains, but that day is not here. For now, the Vision Pro is one cool toy for technophiles, but it has yet to prove its usefulness in the real world.
I mean, do you want to be this guy?
Apple Vision Pro at McDonald’s 😂 pic.twitter.com/WA22wPC952
— Ben Geskin (@BenGeskin) February 13, 2024
Or worse—this guy?
If I had an apple vision pro! pic.twitter.com/UdXgm73K1U
— Arron Crascall (@arron_crascall) February 13, 2024
The future is here—well, sort of. To me, this is more of an insight into the future, not our next new phenomenon. We shall see. But if anyone wants to front me the $3,500 bucks so I can make sure, DM me some cash on Twitter, or X, whatever it’s called now, and I'll be sure to give it a whirl.
(The preceding was a joke; no, I can't accept your money, sadly.)
