The tech inside is great, but Apple also knows its customers are happy to pay a hefty premium over cost. I hate Apple but they are amazing at branding at end of day.
Apple are almost certainly planning a non “pro” model that will be much cheaper and the pro’s high pricing drives discussion, exclusivity, which leans in on their aspirational brand modus. Thus, the non-pro model will likely have absurd sales as people rush to finally buy in at their price level.
I don’t support it or like it but Apple have been following this playbook for decades now and unfortunately it really works.
I don't like how hard the article tries to make it seem like the markup is justified because of all of Apple's other costs. Apple will sell the product at whatever price it thinks the customer will pay, and the margins only matter to determine whether the product is worth it for Apple to sell (I'd love to see what the payback period is on the project though). The cost isn't that outrageous if this COGS is correct, maybe slightly on the higher side for a tech product.
The real discussion should be whether the product is worth the price they are charging based on the utility and the cost of being essentially a beta tester as an owner of a 1st gen product.
bill of materials” for the headset at $1,542, and that doesn’t include the costs of research and development, packaging, marketing or Apple’s profit margin.
Please read it, it's just another version of the "the iPhone cost 500$ to make". Research and especially marketing can sometimes be as much as the material and assembly cost. Id be surprised that apple doesn't make a profit on it, but it might not be close at all to 100% .
It costing that much in materials seems a bit much though I heard its casing is milled from a brick (probably not literally) of aliminium. Combing the other high tech and mass production aspects I feel like it costing 1k is more believable. But what do I know not even employed in any manfacturing job.
Unjerk for a moment. How much should something like this cost? Serious question. Seems like it can do things other devices really can’t. Saw a video yesterday from a programmer who said it could replicate an impossible physical setup. I don’t have a need for it but maybe someone else can see the value.
The Apple Vision Pro supports only one 4k display for your Mac. I've seen some unreleased app dev stuff claiming to support another display, but as far as I know today there isn't any way to do it.
bill of materials” for the headset at $1,542, and that doesn’t include the costs of research and development, packaging, marketing or Apple’s profit margin.
And the software development. I wouldn't be surprised if the total cost is close to the market price. Apple doesn't really need to make profit with this, but to create a market first.
“Because some dipshits will buy anything to be better than others, and also some people have just fucktons more money than they probably should “ - there, saved you a click