‘Vision Pro’, its first ambitious product in 10 years, what market is Apple trying to target?

Apple holds pre-orders for ‘Vision Pro’ in the US on the 19th of this month
Despite Apple's announcement that "games are not the main purpose", 'VR game companies' are busy responding to the market
Tim Cook: “Vision Pro is a private theater,” inevitably hitting the TV and movie theater industries

As Apple prepares to launch its MR (mixed reality) device ‘Vision Pro’, there are predictions that the atmosphere in the XR (extended reality) device market, which has been underperforming despite initial high expectations, will turn around. In particular, domestic game companies are racing to release VR games to coincide with the release of Vision Pro. However, as it is known that Apple is still focusing on the value as a content viewing platform rather than games, the market landscape is expected to change. Some predict that if Apple focuses on the XR content market, related industries such as TV and movie theaters will take a big hit.

As Vision Pro’s release date approaches, the related industry is ‘upset’

According to the industry on the 15th, the official sale date for Apple’s XR device Vision Pro is February 2, and pre-orders in the United States are scheduled to begin on the 19th of this month. The factory price is $3,499 (about 4.6 million won), which is nearly seven times more expensive than the factory price ($499) of the MR headset ‘MetaQuest 3’ released by Meta in October last year. XR is a technology that provides various experiences in virtual space and is a concept that encompasses virtual reality, augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality.

Vision Pro is Apple’s first ambitious product since the launch of the ‘Apple Watch’ in 2015, and is a goggle-type device that operates based on a separate ‘Vision OS’. It is also called a spatial computer that is controlled by voice, eyes, and hand gestures, and Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized that it is “the most advanced consumer device.”

There is speculation in the industry that with the release of Vision Pro, the atmosphere in the XR device market will change. An official from market research firm IDC said, “Apple’s Vision Pro, which created the iPhone and iPad, can play a pivotal role in the market,” and predicted, “Competitors motivated by Apple will compete in a different way than before.” did. Following Meta last year, Sony also released ‘Playstation VR2’, but the market performance was poor compared to initial expectations. In fact, last year, total sales of related devices such as VR headsets and AR glasses in the United States decreased by nearly 40% compared to the previous year.

The XR content field, including VR games, is also booming. In particular, domestic game companies are making all-out efforts to respond to the XR market in line with the launch of Vision Pro. For now, it is linking with some devices such as MetaQuest, but in the future, it plans to provide games on various platforms by collaborating with big tech companies such as Apple and Samsung.

Apple says it is different from existing VR products

However, it appears that Apple has no plans to support VR game controllers for Vision Pro as of yet. Last July, Bloomberg reported that “Apple is not planning its own game controller for the Vision Pro, nor is it actively considering supporting third-party VR accessories.”

So far, Tim Cook has also drawn a line, saying that Vision Pro is “different from Google and Meta’s VR (virtual reality) products.” In particular, unlike Meta, which provides extensive support for VR game controllers, Apple is known to be focusing on control using only hands, hand gestures, and voice without any accessories.

Apple is expected to first target digital content such as OTT and the TV market through Vision Pro. You can get a hint from the fact that Tim Cook named Vision Pro ‘a personal movie theater’ at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) held at Apple Park last summer. Vision Pro is not viewed as a simple gaming device that runs virtual reality, but as a tool to digitize our living spaces beyond PCs and smartphones.

Apple’s choice to focus on its value as a content viewing platform appears to be able to maximize entertainment experiences that transcend spatial barriers. The implementation of Vision Pro shown at Apple’s new product presentation was like a scene from a science fiction novel. When you watch OTT with Vision Pro, Disney characters run around the house, and sometimes they even become the main characters in Marvel movies. Furthermore, by linking it with a Mac, you can work with multiple windows open on the huge 4K display in front of you, like a scene from the movie ‘Minority Report.’

The impact of the popularization of XR devices on the industry

There are also predictions that as the use of Vision Pro becomes more active in the future, related industries such as TVs, projection screens, and monitors will be hit hard. Tech media outlet Inverse said, “If a device like the Vision Pro is portable and can easily view all content, there will be fewer people spending more than $3,000 on the latest TV,” adding, “Also, occupations that require the use of multiple monitors and PCs “If the number of people choosing Vision Pro increases, it will be difficult to avoid a hit in the monitor and some IT device markets,” he predicted.

In fact, half of Vision Pro’s costs are focused on the display. According to market research firm F&S, etc., the component cost of the cutting-edge display panel Micro OLED installed in Apple Vision Pro is expected to account for 50% of the total production cost and 20% of the selling price. In the case of Vision Pro, unlike smartphones, the distance between the eyes and the display panel is close, so it must have a high pixel density to increase immersion.

In addition, Vision Pro includes a theater option that provides full-screen and large-screen images, allowing you to enjoy content in 4K. Accordingly, some predict that the movie theater industry, where usage fees are rising sharply every year, will be hit the hardest. Considering the high shipping price of Vision Pro, the immediate impact on the movie theater industry will not be significant, but assuming the time when Vision Pro is popularized, the number of theaters will decrease at the same rate as XR devices are distributed to the general public. The representative of a domestic tech research company said, “According to people who have actually experienced XR devices such as Vision Pro for more than 30 minutes, it has already been proven that it is superior to the experience of watching content in a theater in terms of picture quality and immersion.” “With movie theaters suffering tremendous damage due to the pandemic and the beginning of the OTT era, the industry could rapidly worsen,” he predicted.