Text size
The Apple Vision Pro headset is set to have a starting price of $3,499, making it significantly more expensive than Meta’s VR products. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Apple
is having to scale back production plans for its Vision Pro headset, according to a report. It’s a setback that could shore up
Meta
Platforms’ position as a leader in the virtual reality sector in the short term.
Apple
’s
(ticker: AAPL) supplier that is set to assemble the device,
Luxshare Precision Industry
(002475.China), is planning to make fewer than 400,000 units in 2024, according to the Financial Times, which cited sources close to the companies. That compares with an initial internal sales target of one million units in the first 12 months for the Vision Pro, which Apple expects to start selling early next year, the FT reported.
Apple declined to comment to the FT and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron’s early on Monday.
The news isn’t necessarily a significant blow to Apple. Expectations for near-term sales of the Vision Pro were already tempered by the $3,499 price point set at its unveiling last month. That led Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives to forecast Vision Pro sales of around 150,000 units for the first year, which would be well within the reported production capacity.
Apple stock was down 0.1% in premarket trading on Monday, leaving it still over the $3 trillion mark that it reached last week, with investors seemingly untroubled about the Vision Pro production hiccups.
However, the news should still be a cause for some celebration at
Meta
(META). The Facebook parent was put under pressure about the future of its own VR headset line in the wake of Apple’s announcement, as technology analysts enthused about the Vision Pro’s high resolution and intuitive user interface. Apple’s aura of technological superiority could be punctured now that its high-tech displays look to be posing some production challenges.
More concretely, Meta should get more time to build momentum behind its forthcoming Quest 3 headset, the latest iteration of its mass-market VR devices. With the device set to debut this fall at a relatively customer-friendly price of $499, a smooth launch could allow Meta to build on some of the excitement in the VR sector.
Meta shares were up 0.1% in premarket trading on Monday.
Write to Adam Clark at [email protected]
Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-vr-vision-pro-headset-production-cut-meta-quest-fb886ca7?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo