Apple Vision Pro finally available in Europe

Do you still remember the days when people camped out in front of Apple stores to be the first to get the new iPhones, tablets and other products of the "big apple"? Judging by what was happening outside one of the Apple stores in London when the Apple Vision Pro was released, then we can conclude that those days are gone. Apple's very "high-tech" head-mounted computer in a visor is finally available in Europe and the UK. It's true that there are decent pre-order options available today, but the fact that there wasn't too much interest upon release also shows that there is still doubt about the future of VR devices. Will the technology in question manage to escape from the world of tech fanatics and break into the mass market?

Apple wants to position the Vision Pro in such a way that customers believe they can do what they've been doing up until now, but better. Home videos become 3D videos, panoramic photos suddenly stretch across the entire wall and 360 degrees around us. It seems that the price of the device is the most problematic, namely in Europe it is £3,500 or €3,999.

Just for comparison, we can look at how Meta views this same VR technology. A recent demo of the Meta Quest 3, available in the UK from 2023, puts multitasking first and foremost. An ad for the Meta Quest 3 device was recently released, in which a man builds a cradle while watching instructions. Certainly not the most exciting concept to use, but we can still see how Meta wants to showcase its technology. That we do not mince words about the price, which is not higher than 600 euros.

Apple vs. Meta: Who will win the VR match?

Apple and Meta are the biggest VR players, but the market is much more saturated than it might seem. Today, we can choose from tens or even hundreds of different VR devices. What they all have in common is that none of the devices has yet managed to become a mass product.

Until recently, Vision Pro was only available in the US - analyst firm IDC predicts that they will not sell more than 500,000 devices this year. Meta, which otherwise does not disclose data on the number of units sold for the Quest, is said to have sold around 20 million devices according to some estimates.

VR devices are nowhere near as irreplaceable as tablets, let alone smartphones. George Jijiashvili, an analyst at Omdia, a market research company, says that many of the devices they buy are soon discarded by consumers. "This happens mainly at the expense of a limited influx of useful and interesting content that would keep the user chained to the device", he adds. Of course, the lack of content leads to less interest on the part of both users and developers, who take care of content development. "It's a chicken and egg situation", says Jijiashvili.

Alan Boyce, founder of mixed reality studio DragonfiAR, pointed out that the first buyers of the Vision Pro device will have to be patient until they get more content. In this area, the Quest 3 is ahead of Apple's product, as it already offers a robust game library, and also allows you to do the same things as the Vision Pro.

IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo adds that despite a slightly slower start, Apple should not be written off. "Apple is always expected to sell millions of products immediately. All the time, products are compared to the iPhonem", says Jeronimo. The fact is that the iPhone also needed time to gather a sufficient number of customers and start with rapid sales growth.

Melissa Otto of S&P Global Market Intelligence claims that the iPhone became a mass product only when the App Store "exploded" by adding an enormous amount of applications. "When people feel that their lives are getting better and easier, then they are ready to take a step forward", says Otto.