If you’ve been following Apple’s Vision Pro in the year or so since it was launched, you’ll know we’ve seen an almost endless supply of reports claiming that the mixed reality headset is in trouble and selling poorly. If that’s the case, it’s clear that Apple needs to do something about it.
Yet, that might not be so easy. Remember when the Apple Watch first launched to a collective “meh” from the world? Even the original iPhone wasn’t a runaway success. But as Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman puts it in his latest Power On newsletter, these devices had solid foundations that just needed tweaking for them to become the great products they are today. The Vision Pro, he contends, needs a far more drastic overhaul.
According to Gurman, Apple has a few ideas on how to do this, and it’s clear that the company has to do something. But reading the reporter’s account of Apple’s internal ideas and debates, I’m left thinking that only a couple are what the Vision Pro needs right now. Here’s what Gurman says Apple is considering doing:
Looking at these options, we can forget the third, fourth and fifth ideas, as they’re too far off in the future. If the Vision Pro really is struggling as much as the reports suggest, Apple needs a fix as soon as possible. Otherwise, it could end up repeating the mistakes of another recent Apple product.
Right now, the problem is that there’s only one Vision Pro model, and it’s expensive. At $3,499, it’s hardly an impulse buy, and that kind of outlay sets an incredibly high bar for Apple to convince people to purchase one. Right now, it seems that Apple is struggling to do that.
I can’t help but feel that there are strong parallels here with the original HomePod. There was only one model of Apple’s speaker when it launched, and while its quality was fantastic, its price was more expensive than that of the competition and, ultimately, more than most people wanted to pay. There was no cheaper option, and this undoubtedly affected Apple’s sales.
Later, Apple brought out the HomePod mini. It sold so well that Apple dropped the original HomePod entirely, leaving only the mini model in the lineup until the company brought back the regular HomePod with a lower price. Apple found its footing eventually, but not offering a more affordable device was clearly the wrong call.
Apple is making the same mistake with the Vision Pro. Don’t get me wrong, the Vision Pro is an incredible product: it’s undoubtedly one of the best mixed reality headsets in terms of tech and overall quality. But it’s hurt by the lack of a cheaper option in the range.
It could be that Apple is afraid of diluting the Vision Pro brand with a cut-price model. But we’re not talking about a product that costs $350 here — the Vision Pro is 10 times that. The risk of alienating customers is high. For most people, the choice is to either cough up $3,499 for a device that few would consider essential or go without one entirely. Apple is taking a huge risk here, and judging by the reports, it’s not working.
But let’s not be rash — I don’t believe there’s a need to permanently drop the Vision Pro. But it desperately needs a cheaper sibling device to give people an easier way into the ecosystem. In other words, the Vision Pro needs its own HomePod mini, something that provides a great experience for most people without requiring you to remortgage your house.
Thankfully, there are plenty of reports that Apple is actively working on exactly this kind of device. Here’s hoping it makes an appearance soon and gives the Vision Pro the reset it so urgently needs.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.