After multiple delays Apple finally unveiled the Vision Pro “spatial computer” to the world a month ago and it gave itself a lot of breathing room, saying that the headset will go on sale early next year. In the meantime, its manufacturing partners were supposed to improve yields and solve other issues.
However, things are not going to plan, reports the Financial Times, and Apple’s internal target of selling 1 million units during the first month of availability has been slashed. Two insiders claim that Luxshare, which assembles the headset, is now looking to make less than 400,000 units in 2024. Two other component suppliers reportedly received orders for only 130,000-150,000 units for next year.
The most expensive components are causing the biggest headaches – the two micro-OLED displays, which are made by Sony and TSMC, are suffering from low yields.
Apple is working on a cheaper headset and considered other display types like mini-LED, but eventually decided to stick with the tricky micro-OLED. Cupertino is talking with Samsung and LG to try and recruit them as display suppliers for the lower-cost unit (a second-gen flagship is also in the works).
Anyway, the design is very complex and includes unique features like EyeSight, which projects and additional view, one that is visible to others. This and the cutting-edge tech like the high-resolution micro-OLED displays (which create the image for the wearer) inevitably caused issues when Apple tried to scale the production – that’s why the launch was set for months after the announcement. However, it seems that Apple and its partners had underestimated the challenge.
