Apple stock is down on poor reviews of the AVP, mainly the cost and it doesn't have app support. Glad I sold a bunch of Apple stock above $196 and now wait to buy it back when it bottoms.
The early reviews for the
Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headsets are in, and they seem unlikely to either drive buyers to
Apple stores or spur investors to buy the stock.
That's no surprise. As Barron's has reported , the Vision Pro is a high-price experimental product in a niche category. It will be many quarters -- and likely years -- before the Vision Pro contributes meaningfully to the company's financial results.
Apple stock fell 1.7% to $188.47 in recent Tuesday trading. The company's market value has fallen to $2.92 trillion, now more than $100 billion below
Microsoft's valuation at $3.05 trillion.
Apple shares are down about 2% for the year to date.
In launching the device,
Apple said the Vision Pro "is a revolutionary spatial computer that transforms how people work, collaborate, connect, relive memories, and enjoy entertainment."
The tech company has been taking preorders for the Vision Pro for several weeks now, ahead of the official launch this Friday. The headset is priced at $3,499 for the base level version, with higher prices for versions with extra memory. You can't wear glasses with the Vision Pro -- people who need corrective lenses will have to pay extra. With taxes, the device can easily set you back more than $4,000.
You might want to buy one eventually, but most reviewers see no urgency for anyone other than developers and
Apple completists.
"Let's get this out of the way: You're probably not going to buy the $3,500
Apple Vision Pro," The Wall Street Journal wrote in its review. "Unless you're an app developer or an
Apple die-hard, you're more likely to spend that kind of money on an actual trip to a Hawaiian volcano...
Apple's headset has all the characteristics of a first-generation product: It's big and heavy, it's battery life sucks, there are few great apps and it can be buggy."
CNET's review has a similar tone. "The headset is the best wearable display I've ever put on," the review wrote. "But at its price, and with so few VisionOS apps at launch, the Vision Pro isn't a device I'd recommend to any of my friends or family."
ZDnet's reviewer described the VisionPro as "an incredible $4,000 developer kit most people should not buy."
However, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives -- long one of Wall Street's biggest
Apple bulls -- predicts
Apple will sell 600,000 Vision Pros in 2024, up from a previous forecast of 460,000.
"This is the first step to
Apple pushing into AI [artificial intelligence] and eventually a separate AI App Store we expect
Apple to discuss initially at WWDC this summer," he wrote in a research note Tuesday. "For
Apple the ultimate goal in our opinion is that Vision Pro will work alongside the iPhone and other
Apple devices over the coming years with many consumer AI use cases set to explode across health, fitness, sports content, and autonomous."
Write to Eric J. Savitz at
eric.savitz@barrons.com
