According to Zhītōng Cáijīng, Apple's (AAPL.US) VR headset, Vision Pro, will be released in more countries outside of the United States on Friday, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. This headset was previously unveiled in the Asian market (Mainland China, Hong Kong China, Japan, and Singapore) on June 28.
Bryan Ma, vice president of International Data Corporation, said that there is no doubt that Vision Pro is a relatively new product category, and it is far from mainstream. In addition, it is also a product from Apple, which is far ahead of its competitors in terms of its implementation. However, Ma pointed out that the challenge is whether Apple can maintain the initial weeks of enthusiasm and turn it into sustainable sales. Ma said in an email comment that, "Considering the current high price, and the fact that the ecosystem for applications and use cases is still developing, this will be difficult."
According to a report released by International Data Corporation(IDC) on June 18, in the first quarter of this year, Meta (META.US) maintained its leading position in the VR headset market, while Apple's recent entry pushed it to second place. ByteDance, Xreal and HTC are among the top five.
IDC stated that "Meta's Quest 3 and Vision Pro help educate users and attract developers to create VR content that blends the digital and physical worlds. Unfortunately, this is at a high price for users."
According to Tianfeng International Securities analyst Guo Mingchi, Apple has lowered its expected sales volume of Vision Pro in 2024 from the previous 0.7 million-0.8 million units to about 0.4 million-0.45 million units. Guo Mingchi attributed the lower shipment forecast to declining demand. Guo Mingchi said, "We expect Apple's Vision Pro to ship about 0.4 million units this year, with nearly half of them sold outside the United States, and the total shipment volume of the headset market is 7.3 million units. If we start to see a decrease in hardware prices and an increase in the utility of applications, this growth may be faster."