2023-07-07 13:41:15
The Vision Pro is a long-term product for Apple and the launch of the first generation of this helmet promises to be spread over time too. It wouldn’t arrive in Europe until at least the end of 2024.
Mark Gurman at Bloomberg brings new details regarding the headphone’s preparations for the US release next year, complementing previous indiscretions.
Apple still has a lot to tighten before the launch of the Vision Pro
Dedicated demo spaces, with seating, are initially planned in some leading Apple Stores. Large stores in New York and Los Angeles, for example, would be served as a priority before a more general deployment in the approximately 270 stores on American soil.
All US Apple Stores, on the other hand, will take orders, but you will need an appointment to buy it. A strategy already used in the early days of the Apple Watch. As with the watch and its bracelets, it is a question of verifying that the customer leaves with a product adapted to his morphology (the format of the anti-light shield once morest his forehead) and any Zeiss inserts for the lenses if he is glasses wearer.
Apple Vision Pro: Zeiss inserts will probably not be given away
To determine the right light shield to take, Apple is developing an iPhone app that will scan a person’s head and other hardware would be needed. Online customers will also be asked to upload prescriptions for their glasses and use the face scanning app to determine accessory sizes.
These constraints mean that the product will involve a very special organization and training for sellers in the Apple Store. Therefore, Apple would not consider entrusting the sale of this product to its partners before at least 2025. And most Apple Stores will probably only have one or two demo models, both the product going to be difficult to obtain in large volumes initially.
Vision Pro: Apple would have reduced its production forecasts and postponed a more affordable version
Logistics will also be tricky, as stores will have to stock the light shield in multiple sizes and quantities of optical inserts, of different types, to accommodate customer profiles. It is not excluded for example that a person needs a different insert for each eye.
Other specificities, sometimes cultural, have been studied, for example with women who wear a veil. Or more simply, clothing cases without a pocket to slip the external battery into. Apple would have encouraged props to prepare shoulder strap cases (we bet that Hermès will be there…).
Already accessories for the Vision Pro
When using it, continues Bloomberg, the designers of the helmet noted that some people who were short in stature and with smaller-than-average small heads had difficulty wearing the helmet for more than half an hour (this was the allotted time for press demonstrations at WWDC). A second strap is being developed to limit this fatigue.
In one of the images of the Vision Pro a strap passing over the head is visible. A second would be necessary for some people.
Just as iPhones have cases, the Vision Pro will certainly need protective accessories. Its front end is prone to scratches, Apple found. There is a potential market for films or other protections.
The case where the wearer of the helmet might move forward and abut the front of the helmet once morest an obstacle has also been considered. Apple has planned that an alert is triggered if the person starts to move at a certain speed… And if the subject moves very quickly, because he is on a plane? It is also planned, he will have to activate the “Travel Mode” beforehand.
The Vision Pro will have an “airplane mode”
The marketing of the Vision Pro in a second tranche of countries would only take place at the end of 2024. That is roughly 18 months following the curtain goes up on this product.
And on this date, the United Kingdom and Canada would be the first on the list, followed shortly following by Asia and Europe. But this international deployment plan is not stopped, underlines Gurman. Software translation efforts are currently targeting France, Germany, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.
Mark Gurman reiterates that a more affordable model is in development and that the second generation of the Vision Pro is planned for 2026.
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