Apple didn’t want to admit that the Vision Pro is difficult to wear
The Apple Vision Pro, though a fantastic piece of kit, didn’t sell well. Part of this was, of course, the insane $3,499 price tag but another reason was something that haunts all VR headsets: comfort. Bloomberg’s Apple insider Mark Gurman reveals that the company didn’t provide a solution to improve comfort because it didn’t want to admit its futuristic design was uncomfortable to use.
The Vision Pro looks fantastic and a lot of that has to do with its glass and aluminum build. Those materials, particularly the glass, can get quite heavy. Apple’s headset can weigh over 100 grams more than its biggest competitor: the Meta Quest 3. And in the world of XR (Extended Reality) that’s quite the jump.
Then there are the other factors that make the headset heavier than it needed to be, like the exterior display that also drives up the cost of the entire product. When Apple enters an industry it likes to do things its way, and while the Vision Pro definitely feels like an Apple product it fails to take into account what most XR users wanted. Hence the lack of dedicated controllers and support for today’s best VR games.
Then there are the other factors that make the headset heavier than it needed to be, like the exterior display that also drives up the cost of the entire product. When Apple enters an industry it likes to do things its way, and while the Vision Pro definitely feels like an Apple product it fails to take into account what most XR users wanted. Hence the lack of dedicated controllers and support for today’s best VR games.
Hello sore neck. | Video credit — Apple
Apple recently started selling a head strap for the Vision Pro that is made by Belkin. This strap has universally been agreed to drastically improve comfort when using the Vision Pro as it distributes the headset’s weight much more evenly. It’s kind of like Apple’s dual loop band for the headset except cushier and much easier to adjust.
Gurman says that, after talking to people within the company, it turns out that Apple didn’t want to sell a better head strap with its branding. The company thought this would signal to consumers that it was admitting that the Vision Pro wasn’t as impeccable a product as it made it out to be.
Another reason was that Apple didn’t consider the issue important enough to warrant spending engineering resources on it. In unrelated news, the Vision Pro is reportedly ending production by year’s end.
Gurman says that, after talking to people within the company, it turns out that Apple didn’t want to sell a better head strap with its branding. The company thought this would signal to consumers that it was admitting that the Vision Pro wasn’t as impeccable a product as it made it out to be.
Another reason was that Apple didn’t consider the issue important enough to warrant spending engineering resources on it. In unrelated news, the Vision Pro is reportedly ending production by year’s end.
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