How Apple could bring down the cost of future Vision headsets

Apple’s forthcoming Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary spatial computer, running visionOS, that seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world, while allowing users to stay present and connected to others. Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman this week looks at how Apple can bring down costs in future visionOS spatial computers.

Vision Pro creates an infinite canvas for apps that scales beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice. Featuring visionOS, the world’s first spatial operating system, Vision Pro lets users interact with digital content in a way that feels like it is physically present in their space. The breakthrough design of Vision Pro features an ultra-high-resolution display system that packs 23 million pixels across two displays, and custom Apple silicon in a unique dual-chip design to ensure every experience feels like it’s taking place in front of the user’s eyes in real time.

Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:

Given how expensive the technology is in the Vision Pro, it’s important to take a look at how Apple could bring down the cost. And it won’t be an easy task to pull that off while making money: the $3,499 price of the Vision Pro is at or near the cost to make it.

MacDailyNews Take: $3,499 is not expensive for a professional computer that provides access to a whole new platform.

The three priciest components in the Vision Pro are its camera and sensor array, its dual Apple silicon chips and the twin 4K micro-OLED virtual reality displays. For a non-pro model, Apple could probably use lower quality screens, either an iPhone-grade chip or an older Mac chip and fewer cameras for lesser performance.

Apple could also probably get away with a simpler headband design, require AirPods for spatial audio instead of the strap with speakers in the Vision Pro, move to a physical versus automatic IPD — distance between eye pupils — adjustment and remove features like the 3D camera. Combined with a more refined production process, economies of scale and a cheaper frame, I’d imagine Apple could knock several hundred dollars off the price.

But there are a few areas I believe Apple will not compromise on in a cheaper Apple Vision. The external screen, known as EyeSight, to show a wearer’s eyes, as well as the eye- and hand-tracking system, are as core to the Apple Vision as a touchscreen is to an iPhone. I would expect a cheaper model to keep those features.

Apple is currently planning a release of the cheaper model for as early as the end of 2025, meaning it won’t debut for about two years after the original Vision Pro. At the same time, Apple is already working on a second-generation Vision Pro with a faster processor, indicating it’s intent on a two-product strategy for the device in line with the standard iPhone and iPhone Pro models.

MacDailyNews Take: Prices will come down. Apple Vision 2 (no Pro), Apple Vision SE, and other lower-priced units will naturally come along, allowing the mass market to take up the future of computing that Vision Pro owners will be enjoying as soon as early next year.

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