Apple reportedly expects to ship 500,000 Vision Pro headsets in 2024

EMERGING TECH

Apple Inc. is expected to ship 500,000 Vision Pro mixed reality headsets in 2024, significantly less than the 1 million the company reportedly targeted as recently as earlier this year. 

The new prediction comes by way of respected industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who detailed his expectations today. Kuo has a track record of reliably forecasting details about Apple’s product roadmap.

The Vision Pro is expected to start shipping in large numbers during the first week of January. According to Kuo, the device will arrive on store shelves in either late January or early February. He added that mass production of the Vision Pro is already underway.

Introduced in June, the Vision Pro resembles a pair of ski goggles and is powered by a standalone battery pack about the size of an iPhone. The headset has been praised by early reviewers for offering a better user experience than competing products. Under the hood, the Vision Pro uses two processors and about two dozen sensors to render content in front of the user’s eyes.

Bloomberg reported last Wednesday that Apple’s Vision Pro production lines have been running at full capacity for several weeks. According to the publication, it’s possible that “last-minute production hiccups or other snags” may slow the device’s launch schedule.

In July, the Financial Times reported that Apple had to significantly scale back up its production volume targets for the Vision Pro because of manufacturing challenges. It’s believed that the iPhone maker originally sought to make about one million headsets in 2024. According to the Financial Times, that number was more than halved to under 400,000.

That Kuo is now predicting 500,000 units suggests Apple may have revised its production target upwards. The change may be motivated by a more optimistic demand forecast. Alternatively, Apple may have addressed some of the manufacturing issues that reportedly caused it to scale back its production plan earlier this year.

One of the manufacturing challenges reportedly related to the two internal screens the Vision Pro uses to display content. Those screens, which are each the size of a postage stamp, reportedly have nearly as many pixels between them as three 4K TVs. They are said to be made by Sony and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Apple reportedly identified issues with the displays’ yield. This is a metric used to track the percent of components that are manufactured without any faults. The higher the yield, the more usable displays are made, which in turn influences the number of Vision Pro headsets that can be produced.

The company is reportedly already laying the groundwork for the launch of the Vision Pro early next year. According to Bloomberg, it’s installing product demonstration equipment at its stores and has started training retail staff on how to use the headset. Additionally, Apple is reportedly encouraging third-party developers to make their applications available on visionOS, the specialized operating system that powers the Vision Pro. 

Image: Apple