Vision Pro demand higher than expected; returns down to 1% – Kuo | Hacker News Reader

Vision Pro demand higher than expected; returns down to 1% – Kuo

9to5mac.com

10 pointsnickthegreek7 comments

I don't understand the purpose of the Vision Pro. VR tends to fall into the gaming niche use case. Which the Vision Pro doesn't do well.

The other gimmicks like "big adjustable screen" are still... 2D screens in 3D space, and you still have to mount heavy goggles to your eyes to see. Monitors seem like a simpler way to have big screens. And the Vision Pro limits your Mac extended screen to only 1 external floating screen, for some reason.

If you're traveling, are you really going to carry around a Vision Pro with you, or are you just going to adjust your workflow to use a single screen on your laptop? Alternatively, you could just use a portable monitor for another screen. Those are very cheap and work pretty well.

The closed ecosystem also makes it difficult to be more productive. Fewer desktop apps. And a lot of iPad apps, in which case... why not just use an iPad?

If I'm buying a VR headset I'm buying it for gaming, in which case I'm looking elsewhere.

The Vision Pro seems like a consolation product because Apple couldn't get AR glasses to work. And it doesn't seem to do much of anything useful.

So who are the buyers here?

the people in my life who

a) have bought them and b) have kept them

tend to fit the profile of technology-interested hobbyist types or software developers who want to experiment with it. most if not all of them don't take it seriously as a device they're using for anything real; they're looking at it as something to build for, or experiment with, or just out of a desire to see the platform grow. none of them have told me that they use it regularly right now or have come across a compelling use case. many of them were already deeply invested in VR/AR to begin with and this is just another toy on their shelf.

i don't know of anyone who's bought it as a device in its own right where they understand the purpose of it and have plans to seriously use it for something.

I use it daily to work in + watch movies.

A family friend of mine is in his 70’s and is having hand mobility issues. He bought one to replace his iPad because it allows him to still do all the things he used to do, but with a minimum of hand movement. He’s really happy with it for the past weekish he’s had it.

I bought mine as a toy to go along with my quest headset. I have high hopes for the platforms future. I don’t share that same outlook for the meta quest line.

That's not consistent with what a lot of my friends have done (people bought two and returned one, or a lot returned their only one, including long-time apple devs/new product folks with >$200k/yr income, such that a $3500 device isn't a major purchase.

I kept mine, but I haven't found anything compelling other than watching video; I'm hoping cool apps happen over the next 6-12 mo.

> The company is expected to follow up with a lower cost model which will likely drop the EyeSight feature as part of its cost savings.

What is the eyesight feature? Does it mean eye tracking (which would be strange to drop) or something else?

It’s the virtual eyes on the front-facing screen.

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