Apple is looking to launch its highly-anticipated AR/VR headset in early 2024, with February being the target month, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
In addition to this reporting though, Gurman is on record saying Apple Store employees are training with the Vision Pro headset in preparation for demos in “mid-January”, which wouldn’t line up with the February expected release date. Although most Apple Store products are easily demoed in-store, this is a product that will take an expert to show how to utilize the impressive capabilities of Apple’s new wearable.
Apple has also confirmed that the new product will debut in the United States with a price tag of $3,500, and release “later next year” in other locations.
Later in 2024, Gurman reported Apple was “discussing the UK and Canada as two of its first international markets with Asia and Europe soon after, although a final decision hasn’t been made” and was working on localizing the device for Australia, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and China.
As far as the rollout goes, many think it will be slow due to production issues, but the very first sentence in the new report from Gurman is that “overseas manufacturing of the headset is running at full speed”, although the definition of full speed doesn’t mean Apple will have enough headsets to meet demand.
During Apple’s earnings call back in November, Tim Cook also said Vision Pro would be “in our stores only”, but it’s unclear if he meant that it would only be available in physical Apple stores, or whether he simply meant it won’t be available in other retailers like Best Buy. With demos coming to all Apple Stores that have Vision Pro, it would make sense that Apple is only trusting their employees to demo this headset.
