HANGOVER KICKS IN: Apple fans are starting to return their Vision Pros.
For some Apple Vision Pro buyers, the honeymoon is already over.
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. (To be fair, VR headset users have anecdotally reported dry eyes and redness for years.)
“Despite being as magical to use as I’d hoped, it was simply way too uncomfortable to wear even for short periods of time both due to the weight and the strap designs. I wanted to use it, but dreaded putting it on,” says Ortolani, who also posted about returning the device.
“It’s just too expensive and unwieldy to even try to get used to the constant headaches and eye strain I was experiencing. I’ll be back for the next one.”
As Bloomberg warned last year: “Apple hasn’t really found a killer app that will make the roughly $3,000 headset a must-have item:”
When Apple Inc. set out to develop a headset about seven years ago, it hired a former NASA engineer who had used augmented and virtual reality to explore Mars. The big question at the time: Why would an ordinary consumer need such a device?
As the company gets ready to unveil the product in June, that question is still hanging in the air. Apple hasn’t really found a killer app that will make the roughly $3,000 headset a must-have item. Instead, it’s trying another tactic: throwing everything but the kitchen sink at consumers.
Apple plans to pack the headset with a variety of features — games, fitness services, even an app for reading books in virtual reality — and hope that buyers find something they like.
It’s not such a wild approach. After all, Apple did the same thing when it unveiled its watch. In 2014, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook pitched the original Apple Watch as a highly accurate timepiece, a fitness tracker, a way to send personal messages to other wearers — and much more. In his presentation, he talked about using it as an Apple TV remote, an iPhone camera view finder and a walkie-talkie.
“The list of features is a mile long and I’m certain when developers get their hands on the developer kit, the list will get even longer,” Cook said at the announcement.
It soon became clear, though, that some features weren’t winners. Apple initially promoted the capability to send your heartbeat to contacts — something that didn’t catch on. It also had a Glances option for swiping through widgets; that system is now gone. And even telling the time isn’t really a core feature anymore, despite the product’s name.
The fact is, Apple had little idea which options would resonate. In the end, it focused on health tracking, notifications and complication-rich watch faces — but only after customers zeroed in on those features as their favorites.
“Nine years later, we’re about to see something similar play out with the Apple headset,” Bloomberg predicted. In Soviet America, beta testers pay you!