Apple's headset is the company's biggest bet in years

Apple’s (AAPL) Vision Pro is coming. And soon. The company announced on Monday that it will begin taking preorders for the headset beginning Jan. 19 at 8 a.m. ET, and that it will officially hit the company’s online and physical stores in the US on Feb. 2.

This isn’t just any product launch, though. This is Apple’s first new product category in nearly 10 years. It last leaped into a new industry segment with the Apple Watch in 2015. But there’s a big difference between the Vision Pro and the Apple Watch, outside of one going on your wrist and the other on your face.

The Apple Watch came to market at a time when fitness trackers and smartwatches were already well-established products. Fitbit was a household name when the Apple Watch hit, and people couldn’t stop talking about tracking their steps.

The AR/VR headset space, though, is still largely untested with Meta’s (META) Quest line of devices standing as the market leaders. And consumers don’t appear to be as hooked on those headsets as Meta hoped.

In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that more than half of Meta Quest headset owners didn’t use their devices just six months after buying them. And according to the Verge, Meta’s VP of VR Mark Rabkin specifically called out flagging user interest in the company’s Quest 2 headset during a February 2023 employee meeting.

But Apple also has a powerful weapon that Meta doesn’t: an enormous number of services subscribers with access to Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. And that alone could give Apple the kind of leg up on Meta it needs to dominate the AR/VR headset industry.

“Apple is walking into a market that has not really taken off … meaningfully in recent years,” IDC research analyst Ramon Llamas told Yahoo Finance. “But, you know … where Apple goes, markets tend to rise.”

Apple is entering an unproven market

Apple’s Vision Pro headset, or spatial computer, as the company refers to it, will test the company’s ability to get consumers interested in a product category that still feels like an answer looking for a question.

So far, gaming has been one of the main reasons consumers have picked up AR/VR headsets. But even those experiences are far from mind-blowing. I’d rather play games on my PlayStation 5 and 65-inch OLED TV than on any headset. Wearing a headset for more than a half hour can be uncomfortable, the graphics on the PS5 are far superior to those any headset can produce, and certain games simply don’t translate well to the headset form factor.

“People don’t play 'Fortnite' on a headset,” said Forrester VP and principal analyst Julie Ask. “They're playing it on their PC because it's so fast and the graphics are so good.”

AR/VR companies are also leaning further into the enterprise space, with Meta pitching its headset as a means of having meetings in which you can interact with your co-workers in virtual spaces.

But let’s be real. Having to turn on your laptop camera for a virtual meeting is hard enough. So, the idea that the average person will willingly strap on a headset to join yet another meeting is a bit hard to swallow.

That’s not to say that headsets can’t help when it comes to productivity. Using them as a means of viewing multiple windows and apps on a massive virtual display would be far better than trying to see all of my work on a single laptop screen.

In fact, Apple demonstrated the ability to use the Vision Pro as a kind of high-powered virtual display during a tech demo at WWDC in June. But it’s hard to imagine the average consumer dropping $3,499 on a bigger screen.

Apple’s services could be the secret to the Vision Pro’s success

Gaming and enterprise capabilities are certain to be a part of Apple’s formula for success for the Vision Pro, but the company’s secret weapon is its services business and the myriad offerings that entails.

“[Apple has] a fluid base that already subscribes to their media services,” said Ask. “If I can instantly start watching movies and doing all these other things, Apple, one, has games … they have movies and TV shows and are compatible with my computer and my smartphone and all these other things, I don't have to go buy gaming titles one at a time and build a library.”

Being able to view your existing apps, movies, photos, and more on the Vision Pro will prove to be a powerful feature for Apple, as it works to convince users that they need an AR/VR headset.

Apple’s army of app developers should also prove extremely helpful in drumming up interest in the Vision Pro. After all, no one really understood how powerful the iPhone would be until Apple launched the App Store and allowed third-party apps on the smartphone. Getting more developers to build for the Vision Pro will be absolutely massive.

There’s also the ease-of-use factor. While other headsets require you to learn how to use separate controllers and navigate new operating systems, the Vision Pro is relatively straightforward. Your eyes act as a kind of cursor that highlights whatever you’re looking at in an app. To select an item, you simply tap your pointer finger and thumb together. It’s that easy.

There’s sure to be a learning curve for some apps and features, but that you can jump into the Vision Pro’s world and start using it right away will prove to be extremely helpful.

All of that said, it’s going to take a while for Apple to see major traction from the Vision Pro. It’s still a wildly expensive device for most consumers. As Llamas explains, you’d be able to buy a MacBook Air, iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch for less than the Vision Pro. But if any company is going to make AR/VR take off, it’ll be Apple.

Daniel Howley is the tech editor at Yahoo Finance. He's been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.

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