In an interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, the Apple CEO, Tim Cook, was found to have quoted the price of Vision Pro at “thirty-four, ninety-nine.” When Cook was asked about the cost of Vision Pro in an interview on national television, he said, “It’ll cost thirty-four, ninety-nine.” At the end of the interview, GMA cut back to the studio and corrected the CEO of Apple. Robin Roberts corrected it as, “When he said ‘thirty-four, ninety-nine,’ I said, ‘Oh, 34 dollars and 99 cents, that’s not bad.’ But no, it’s almost $3,500.”
Also Read: Vision Pro at WWDC 2023: 10 things we liked about Apple’s ‘next big thing’, 1 we didn’t
While Vision Pro was the limelight of this year’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC), it was the device’s price that left the audience in splits. During the interview, Roberts posed the question of whether the Vision Pro is something that an average person will be able to afford. To this, Tim Cook responded, “I don’t know. I think people will make different choices depending on their current financial situation.” He further added, “The engineering and depth of engineering in it is mind-blowing. You’ve got more than 4K experience in each eye. Of course, does it come for free? It costs something to do that. But I think it’s a great value.”
In reaction to the price of Vision Pro, many people took to their Instagram and Twitter to react to it. This resulted in an endless list of memes making circles. Elon Musk too join the audience by sharing a meme on the same.
During the WWDC, as the price of the mixed reality headset was revealed, it received criticism from consumers and online commentators. Mike Rockwell, the top executive of Apple who is in charge of the project, said, “If you purchased a new state-of-the-art TV, surround-sound system, powerful computer with multiple high-definition displays, high-end camera, and more, you still would not have come close to what Vision Pro delivers.” As reported by Bloomberg, this argument might hold true factually, but it may come off as misleading since Vision Pro is a device that is meant to be utilised by an individual, whereas television is a means of a shared experience.
As per a report by Bloomberg, the tech company can bring the price of Vision Pro down. It was noted that the most expensive components of Vision Pro are the camera and sensor array, its dual Apple silicon chips, and the twin 4K micro-OLED virtual reality displays. For a non-pro, cheaper model, Apple could replace these components with an inferior-quality display along with an iPhone-grade chip or any older MAC chip with fewer cameras. This will bring the price down while providing lesser performance.
The next thing Apple could do is use a simpler headband design. According to Bloomberg, Vision Pro’s strap with speakers can be replaced by Air Pods for spatial audio. It can further move to a physical versus automatic IPD (distance between eye pupils) adjustment and remove features like the 3D camera.
However, there are areas where Apple will not compromise, like the features of EyeSight and the hand tracking system. These are core to the Vision Pro, like the touchscreen is core to an iPhone. As Bloomberg reported, Apple is working to introduce a cheaper model of the Vision Pro by 2025. Meanwhile, reportedly, Apple is already working on the second-generation Vision Pro, which would feature a faster processor. However, for the time being, Apple can only hope that the staggering price at which Vision Pro will be available will not drive consumers away before the cheaper version is introduced.
