Challenges Faced by Apple Vision Pro

Apple's Vision Pro, is a marvel of technology but has struggled to meet sales targets. In the XR industry, AVP technically is king —two OLED displays with 23 million pixels, 12 cameras, five sensors, six microphones, and an M2 chip —alas, the Vision Pro has sold only around 450,000 units, far short of the 800,000 target. Why? It's crucial to recognize that the Vision Pro functions more like a developer kit (devkit) than a consumer product. Apple typically markets consumer products, so labeling it as a devkit wouldn't align with their culture. A devkit allows developers to build software, and the Vision Pro could have benefited from this approach. Developers had been asking for early access to build engaging content, but Apple did not heed this advice. Several factors contributed to the lackluster sales: Price: The Vision Pro's $3500 price tag is significantly higher than competitors like Meta's headset, which retails for around $500. Physical Discomfort: Users reported issues such as motion sickness, headaches, and eye strain from prolonged use. Limited Applications: There were few Vision Pro-specific applications and media, leading to high return rates and even some units appearing on eBay. Weight: The headset weighs 1.4 pounds, making extended use uncomfortable. Apple didn't invest in creating compelling content, which contributed to the device's limited appeal. It would have made more sense to work with the existing Meta Quest ecosystem of devs to port their experiences to Apple. While only 450,000 people out of the global market might want to purchase the Vision Pro due to these challenges, the primary issue lies in the lack of developer engagement and content creation. For future success in spatial computing, Apple needs to address these factors and potentially reframe their product strategy to include early developer access and more affordable, less intrusive devices. https://lnkd.in/giM8dRXZ #applevisionpro #spatialcomputing #metaquest

I’ve been testing the Apple Vision Pro for UX. There are 5 UX problems I wish Apple would fix. While I haven’t seen a technological leap like Vision Pro since the touchscreen, the key to its adoption will be the user experience. These are the issues with the Apple Vision Pro user experience – and potential solutions. 1. Hand gestures don’t work in low lighting or darkness rendering the device useless (on a red-eye flight, for example). Solution: Lowlight mode, Infrared cameras, or optional physical button controls 2. Looking up and tapping unintentionally triggers the control center. Solution: Acess control center through the digital crown 3. Tapping while scanning (moving eyes elsewhere following the tap) sometimes triggers unintended targets. Solution: Improved detection for the eye position at the exact moment of the tap, ignoring movement afterward 4. The top button for screenshotting your view is not particularly useful, easy to trigger unintentionally, and is hard to exit. Solution: Add an option to customize the top button for other actions 5. Limited window management makes the visual workspace feel cluttered and unusable for work purposes. Solution: Provide true app window minimizing and stacking to allow for multitasking The good news? These modifications shouldn’t be too complex to make, and I hope Apple will address them in the upcoming updates. The best part? Apple Vision Pro opens a new frontier that inspires me as a UX specialist. With UX improvements, the Apple Vision Pro could change the way people interact with technology for generations to come.

This is a sad but perfect headline to capture the reality of a failure to create demand, and loving the technology more than the problem. The reality seems to be that the Vision Pro product is exceptional, and the marketing put behind it was second to none. The problem was that it overestimated the demand that would meet it at its price point. We often talk about how great marketing can't save a bad product, but sometimes it can't even save a great one. What matters is how much the market wants it and is willing to pay for it. There's talk that Apple is correctly responding by looking to create a lower priced option, and no doubt they'll find the best outcome possible, but the lesson is one of the limitations of marketing and the reality that innovation can't always create demand. The economic realities of a market - available capital, expendable income, and simply the buyer interest and trends - will always be more powerful than any marketing or technology. Sometimes high demand can elevate bad products, and others it can hinder amazing ones. You can't beat the market, but you can absolutely look to understand it through market research.

One of the best commentaries I read to-date about the Vision Pro, from a business perspective. Highlight: “Similarly, Apple is trying to push Vision Pro onto their existing consumer customers. All the demos and existing applications are tailored to the consumer market. Additionally, Apple did not create demos for how the Vision Pro could be used in new markets where users would jump at the opportunity to buy a Vision Pro. For example, the internet is rife with proof of demand in an adjacent mass market: helping millions of homeowners repair things around their property. There is also proven demand for Industrial applications outside of the consumer space. Every company that has complex machinery has been experimenting with AR for years. Imagine car repair with a Vision Pro AR tutorial. Or jet engine maintenance. Or the entire gamut of complex machinery. All of these would have been great Vision Pro demos for training and repair. It’s hard to understand why Apple ignored these easy wins.”