of Apple Vision Pro buyers prefer to part with their headset

We have seen it in the street, in the car, at the gym or more recently on the head of an airplane pilot… With a frenzy on social networks, the Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset has sold out of its initial stock within an hour in the United States, despite its high price of $3,500. The first copies were delivered on February 2 in this country alone.

The regulatory 14 days to return the product free of charge will be reached on Friday for the first American buyers. And more and more of them are saying on social networks that they have decided to part with their helmets, because “too expensive” for its price or “uncomfortable”, as reported by the specialized media Cult of Mac.

“Headaches and nausea”

The Vision Pro allows you to see through the screen while being immersed in the virtual universe. Thus, it promises to facilitate daily tasks or increase productivity at work. As soon as it went on sale, the headset worked with nearly a million iPhone and iPad applications, and 600 specially designed for it. Among these, many office applications, such as Microsoft 365.

A few days after its release, the first feedback from users is mixed. Headaches, feeling of nausea, visual discomfort or the weight of the tool weighing on the face… customers first criticize it for a lack of comfort. These criticisms are recurring for VR/AR headsets. Designed for the mass market, it is difficult to adapt such a tool to individual constraints.

“What a desappointment. It’s too uncomfortable to wear and it’s tiring on my eyes. This is clearly the future, it works like magic. But the physical constraints are just not worth it for me.”notes Parker Ortolani, project manager for the media The Verge, on Threads. It also notes that the procedure for returning the product was “smoothly, but I was asked a long list of questions, which had never happened before”.

It’s not the technological design that’s wrong. Devin Fountain, website designer, explains about: “It’s fantastic as a virtual monitor in a place where you can’t have more screens. But every time I take it off, I’m reminded how much sharper my MacBook’s screen is. Body fatigue? Not that much. Eye fatigue? Certainly. Cheekbone pain? 1000% ». A engineer notes thus on that “the experience did not convince him” because the helmet caused him headaches “while I was programming”.

Read alsoThe Vision Pro headset reignites the rivalry between Apple and Meta

Wait for the next version

Mark Zuckerberg is therefore not the only one to think that Apple’s headset is not worth its price. The founder of Meta published a video on Instagram on Tuesday praising the qualities of his group’s latest mixed reality headset, the Meta Quest 3. “After using the Vision Pro, I not only think Quest has the best value for money. I think Quest is the better product, period.” Released last September, the latest version of Zuckerberg’s product starts at €549.99.

For the moment, it is impossible to know if these few returns, which are not yet quantifiable, will have an impact on the development of the Vision Pro. Many netizens who said they were returning the device also said they were eager to try the next version of the headset. Apple obviously has enormous ambition for its Vision Pro, the first new product range since the launch of the Apple Watch in 2014.