Though Apple's expensive headset was been praised for its cutting-edge technology, the device is expensive and hasn't yet been widely embraced at either home or work.
I don’t see how this is a failure, because I don’t see this as a legitimate push for adoption.
This was a device that cost as much as a used car, with no real pre release applications, and virtually no preemptive dev kits. The only thing I can see that as is an attempt to mass test a new device type with early adopters.
Every single review I saw said the same thing. Its amazing tech, with a big price tag and nobody knew who is it for. The magic wore off pretty quickly and nobody wanted to use it long term.
Would a mass test have this kind of marketing though?
There are ways of testing for these things that doesn't involve millions of dollars in marketing events (they did flew a bunch of tech influencers to Cupertino) and millions more in manufacturing (factories are expensive as hell). Apple admitted themselves that the number of sales was even lower than their already limited expectations.