Friday morning ushers in Apple’s era of spatial computing when the Vision Pro goes on sale, and the cutting-edge headset is likely to sell out almost immediately.
But that won’t be a sure indication of huge demand for the new product — Apple has reportedly produced a relatively small number of the $3,499 headsets.
Vision Pro likely to be in short supply
Demand for a new product exceeding the supply is the sort of thing that makes headlines. But it doesn’t mean much when the manufacturer doesn’t make many initial units. And that’s allegedly going to be the case with Apple’s upcoming headset.
“Apple will produce 60,000 to 80,000 units of Vision Pro for the February 2 release,” Ming-Chi Kuo with TF International Securities, said via X on Thursday. “Since the shipment is not large, I believe that Vision Pro will sell out soon after the release.”
The trusted analyst seems cautiously optimistic about the new product. “Although Apple has not clearly defined the product positioning and key applications of Vision Pro, and there are doubts that the price is not cheap, the user experience (e.g., giving users the illusion that they can control the user interface with their minds) created by the groundbreaking technology innovations, along with the base of core fans and heavy users, should make it easy to sell out after the release,” said Kuo.
Factor in plenty of bad-faith buyers
Because the headset is a cutting-edge product from a very popular company, expect many of the early units to go to flippers: people who’ll get a Vision Pro expecting to resell it to someone else at a profit once the wait time for the new unit from Apple starts to stretch out weeks or even months.
“Going to make bank off of some units,” wrote a MacRumors forum user who goes by FattiesGoneWild. “Can’t wait for pre orders to open! I am anticipating double the price per unit or slightly below. Not even keeping one myself as I have zero interest in it but for profit.”
Many of the limited supply of early units will also go to people who’ll buy one just because they want to try it out, even though they fully intend to return it for a refund. Apple doesn’t charge a restocking fee, so there’s no penalty to the buyer.
Apple will begin taking preorders for Vision Pro on Friday, Jan. 19, at 5 a.m. Pacific. Deliveries begin Feb. 2, when the headset will become available to purchase in Apple retail stores. The product is initially available only in the United States.
