The first headset costs up to 25,000, Apple 'breaks through' the metaverse

文| Another Mirror Morning Sun

Editor|Chen Yanxu

At 2 a.m. on June 6, Beijing time, at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, CEO Cook announced the launch of its first MR (mixed reality) head-mounted display device, Vision Pro. It is expected to be launched in the US market in early 2024, priced at US$3,499.

It can be said that Vision Pro is Apple’s most important product in recent years. As the world’s first MR head-mounted device, it contains more than 5,000 invention patent technologies.

The three major technology giants, Sony, Apple, and Meta, will intensively release XR products in 2023, and Apple’s Vision Pro shows more of its new revolutionary nature. In addition, NVIDIA launched the cloud Avatar development engine ACE, bringing more possibilities to content production in the media field.

What new changes will

bring?

Judging from the demonstration effect, the selling point of Apple Vision Pro this time is that it can mobilize the "virtual world" only with eyes, hands and voice, through the built-in 12 cameras, 5 sensors and 6 microphones, as well as the powerful space Computing power can instantly convert information such as pictures, locations, and sounds seen by the human eye into digital signals, and display them in front of you through the screen. Software information such as applications, videos, and games can interact with reality. Developers can use this information to create more imaginative user experiences.

Vision Pro adopts a co-processing design and is equipped with Apple's self-developed M2 chip and R1 chip. The R1 chip is mainly responsible for data transmission of the device's camera and sensor. Secondly, the device uses two Micro OLED displays with a single-eye resolution of over 4K. It also supports 3D video viewing, and the overall display effect is outstanding.

In terms of content, users can watch Disney content on Vision Pro, thanks to Vision Pro’s cooperation with Disney.

At the same time, Apple has also cooperated with Unity. Commonly used Unity apps and games can obtain full permissions to use VisionOS, including perspective, high-resolution rendering and native gestures, and Unity apps can be rendered simultaneously with native apps. Vision Pro will also have its own app store, which in addition to VisionOS apps, also includes apps for iPhone and iPad.

At the same time, the device is also designed with the EyeSight reverse perspective function. When someone is nearby, the front frame of the device will become transparent and show the user's eyes. When the user is fully immersed, the mask will become blurred. , making people around you aware of what the user is paying attention to.

For people who wear glasses, Vision Pro uses an optical insert in cooperation with Zeiss, which can be magnetically attached to the lens.

In addition to Apple Vision Pro itself, Apple has also launched a new operating system, Vision OS, based on the characteristics of fused reality.

The market response was cold

As a first-generation product, Vision Pro has met expectations. But the capital market will still think calmly. On the evening of June 6, Apple’s U.S. stock market opened, and the stock price continued to fall. The Vision Pro market generally believed that the price was too high and the mass production time was lower than the market’s early expectations.

It will take a long time to wait for Vision Pro to reach mass production.

Guo Mingchi tweeted on Tuesday that Apple has demonstrated the vision of spatial computing and design innovation of AR/MR devices, but has not demonstrated the necessity of using Vision Pro in daily life. In contrast, ChatGPT/AIGC is more convincing in changing human life in the foreseeable future. The higher-than-expected selling price and the need to wait for more than half a year for the release date are not conducive to short-term investment sentiment. What needs to be closely observed is the pre-order demand and whether Apple can provide more attractive applications/content/ecology before the release.

Analysts don’t expect Apple’s Vision Pro, which will go on sale early next year, to have much appeal in the mainstream market, at least initially. The price of $3,500 may also deter many consumers.

Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst at research firm Creative Strategies, said she believes the avatar "will not be marketed to mass-market consumers, but more to early adopters and developers." .

Judging from the current market reaction, external concerns mainly include the following aspects:

With the use of a detached external battery, Vision Pro can be used continuously for 2 hours, and when plugged in, it can be used all day long. For the only 2 hours of use time, in the eyes of the outside world, it is obviously too little. Although Apple has always paid attention to details and maturity in its products, it is obvious that the standby time this time has shocked the outside world.

—— Past VR products, including headsets such as Google Glass, Magic Leap, Microsoft HoloLens and Meta’s Quest Pro, have not received too much favor from capital. However, Apple has proposed to launch the most expensive headset, which will directly If a group of people are turned away, will there be a risk of dragging down net profits?

—— The MR market is still immature in the short term. With the advent of the ChatGPT craze, the enthusiasm for the Metaverse is significantly lower than last year. Whether the products released next year will gain market recognition will require more technological innovation. At present, there are still more unknowns.

—— There are still many problems that Vision Pro needs to solve, including supply chain, high-power chips, heat dissipation, weight, battery life, screen refresh rate, eye tracking, ecology, etc., which need to be improved.

Apple supplier, Apple concept stock "Fruit Chain" MR concept stock fell sharply at the opening on June 6. According to statistics from Flush iFinD, there are 118 stocks related to the Apple concept in A-shares. In just one day of trading, the total market value of the above stocks decreased by nearly 88 billion yuan. If the recovery in downstream demand is less than expected, it will affect the performance of industry chain companies in the future.

—— In the supply chain, Apple MR headset is mainly composed of display, optics, sensors, chips, acoustics, structural parts, communication antennas, assembly, FPC and other components. Some companies worth watching include Sony, TSMC, Luxshare Precision, Cowell Electronics, Changying Precision and Smart Cube.

Counterpoint Research data shows that the launch of Apple’s headset will pit it against Meta, which currently holds 81% of the VR headset market. Apple expects to sell around 900,000 Vision Pro units in its first year, which would give it a commanding share of the market given its price. However, these numbers are a drop in the bucket compared to what Apple's other devices produce.

Vision Pro is seen as Apple’s biggest and riskiest bet since the launch of the iPhone. However, Apple already needs a more dynamic product to inject more imagination into its market value than ever before. Tim Cook said this mixed reality headset marks the beginning of a new era of personal technology.

Apple's products are known for their high profit margins and outstanding product competitiveness. It is worth noting that on May 4, local time, Apple released its second quarter financial report for fiscal year 2023, which showed that the company’s quarterly revenue was US$94.84 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%; net profit was US$24.16 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.4%. This is the second consecutive quarter in which Apple’s revenue and net profit have declined.

Although Apple's financial report exceeded market expectations, both revenue and profit fell by about 3% year-on-year, indicating that the global market, especially the consumer electronics market, is still at a low point.

During this conference, before the announcement of Vision Pro, Apple’s stock price had been rising, once rising by more than 2%. After the launch of Vision Pro, Apple’s stock price began to turn downward. As of the close of trading on June 5, Apple's stock price fell 0.76%, with a price of $179.09 per share. Apple shares opened on the U.S. stock market on June 6, and the stock price fell again, causing the company's market value to currently be $282 million.

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