Apple Vision Pro launches in Europe today. A new sales report indicates that it really needs a boost

In February, Apple launched its first major new device in nearly a decade, the Apple Vision Pro. It was handily the most anticipated gadget launch of the year, with massive marketing and media hype surrounding it.

But since then, the Apple Vision Pro seems to have made less of a bang and more of a whimper when it comes to consumer demand. And now a new report from market intelligence firm IDC indicates that Apple Vision Pro sales in the United States are pretty bleak, just as the device is rolling out internationally.

Apple Vision Pro: A sales update

It’s important to note that since launching in the United States on February 2, Apple has never revealed Apple Vision Pro sales numbers. Nor has the company ever issued public sales projections for the device.

But this silence around sales numbers and expectations isn’t that strange. Apple is notoriously secretive when it comes to how their devices are selling. The company doesn’t even break down numbers for the individual models of iPhones it sells anymore (regular vs Pro vs Plus). Instead, it simply reports the total number of iPhones sold. The reason for this is mainly a competitive one—Apple doesn’t want to tip other smartphone makers off to which iPhone models sell the most.

What we do know about Apple Vision Pro sales comes from supply chain analysts and marketing firms that have ways to gauge the way sales are going, at least roughly. Back in April, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is one of the most reliable analysts when it comes to estimating the popularity of a device based on his supply chain sources, said that Apple had reduced its Apple Vision Pro shipment expectations from more than 700,000 units to 400-450,000 for all of 2024. If Kuo’s reporting is correct, it suggests Apple was experiencing less demand for the Vision Pro than it originally expected––after just two months of availability.

And now, a new report from IDC (via Bloomberg) suggests that Vision Pro sales haven’t improved since Kuo’s April report. IDC says that the Apple Vision Pro still has yet to sell more than 100,000 units in any single one of Apple’s fiscal quarters. We are now in Apple’s third fiscal quarter since the Vision Pro launched. Worse, IDC says that in the current quarter, Apple Vision Pro sales have cratered by 75%.

If IDC’s numbers are accurate, that means that Apple has sold fewer than 300,000 Vision Pro units so far. And if that sales rate holds up, it means that the company won’t even hit the lowball estimates of 400,000 total sales for all of fiscal 2024.

Why isn’t the Apple Vision Pro selling?

So why aren’t people buying the Apple Vision Pro? It has nothing to do with the device’s technical capabilities. There is near universal consensus among tech reviewers that the Vision Pro is the best mixed reality headset ever (or, as Apple prefers to call it: a spatial computer).

There seem to be two primary reasons the Vision Pro isn’t having an “iPhone moment”—a phrase that describes the way the original iPhone took the world by storm when it first launched in 2007.

The primary reason is cost. At $3,499, the Vision Pro is just way too expensive for the average consumer. For that price, you could buy four iPhone 15s, and those iPhones can do 90% of what the Vision Pro does: browse the web, play movies, and send emails and messages.

But iPhones can also do much more than the Vision Pro because they have a much larger ecosystem of apps available for them—millions of apps. The Apple Vision Pro only has a few thousand.

And that leads to the second big reason why the Vision Pro hasn’t seemed to catch the imagination of consumers: What is its killer app? Or, to phrase that another way: What is something that the Vision Pro does that is so astounding and unique that people will part with $3,500 just to be able to do it?

Right now, there doesn’t seem to be anything the Vision Pro does that our other devices can’t already do. A MacBook might not be able to display floating spatial documents all over your house, but it can display the documents just fine on its screen.

Entertainment? For sure, one of the Vision Pro’s best features is its ability to make it seem like you are watching movies on a massive IMAX-sized screen in your living room. But if you have a family, they can’t share that experience with you because they can’t wear the Vison Pro at the same time as you. For that same $3,500, a family could enjoy watching a film together on a pretty massive OLED TV.

Apple Vision Pro goes international

If IDC’s numbers are correct, Apple won’t even sell 400,000 Vision Pro units in the U.S. during its fiscal 2024. But could international sales help give the Vision Pro the boost it needs?

On June 28 the Apple Vision Pro went on sale in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore, marking the device’s first international rollout. And Today, Apple’s headset will hit Europe for the first time, going on sale in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as Australia and Canada.

The international expansion is sure to give a short-term boost to sales, but it seems unlikely that the boost will be anything but a minor blip. Why? Because no matter where the device is sold, it still suffers from the lack of a killer app and a price that is too high for the average consumer.

And the price is an even bigger hurdle internationally, considering that the Vision Pro is even more expensive in other countries than the $3,499 it costs in the United States:

• United Kingdom: £3,499 or about $4,518
• Germany: €3,999 or about $4,348
• France: €3,999 or about $4,348
• China: RMB 29,999 or around $4,120
• Australia: A$5,999 or about $4,062
• Singapore: S$5,299 or around $3,900
• Japan: ¥599,800 or around $3,700
• Canada: CAN$4,999 or about $3,675
• Hong Kong: HK$27,999 or around $3,580

Is the Apple Vision Pro a flop?

Despite the lackluster sales reports, it would be premature to call the Vision Pro a failure. The device is a technological marvel and an engineering wonder. It is also very much a first-generation device.

What Apple needs to do now is work on two things. First, it needs to get more developers to make apps for the device, which in turn adds more capabilities to it, and thus makes it a better value proposition in consumers’ eyes.

Second, the company needs to work on cutting the cost of the next-generation Apple Vision Pro. Indeed, Apple is already reportedly working toward this. IDC’s report says the company could release a new model of the Vision Pro in 2025 that may cost half as much as the current one.

Will that be enough to turn sales around? We’ll see. But a $1,750 Vision Pro is certainly much more palatable to consumers eager to experience the immersive technology..