What could Apple’s VR headset possibly do to justify its $3000 price tag?

Three thousand Dollar. Not three hundred dollars. Not even a thousand dollars. Three thousand Dollar. That’s a lot of money to drop for something that’s almost guaranteed to give you a headache, make you feel like you’re going to barf, and make you look like a dork.

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All indications are that Apple is going to announce its capable AR/VR headset at WWDC next week and the product will cost around $3,000. opposite of this, Meta’s soon to be announced third generation headsetThe Quest 3, is expected to cost less than $500.

competing variables

Five hundred vs three thousand? If Apple is going to display something at that price point, it better have something going for it.

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AR/VR headsets only have a few vectors for competitive advantage. Let’s have a look at them:

worth: Apple has never really competed on price. It has always played the role of Feelings, Ecosystem Integration, Quality, Exclusivity and Design. At an estimated $3,000 launch price, Apple isn’t playing the price game.

Dullness: Most AR/VR goggles are much closer to scuba goggles than Ray Bans in terms of form factor. The closer Apple can get to making a headset smaller than a nightmare wart on your forehead, the better chance Apple has for success.

weight: Besides looking stupid, the headset’s specs are massive. With prolonged use, they can cause irritation to the neck and back.

Rest: If you’re going to shove a two-pound brick to your face, you need something to hold it in place. Over time, some AR/VR vendors have gotten better at increasing comfort, but putting something big, bulky, and heavy into place often means sacrificing comfort for rigidity and structure. Apple needs to find the sweet spot here.

Eye Feeling: Here, we’re talking about adjusting devices to compensate for pupil distance, as well as how to handle people who need a prescription to see. How much strain will these things put on the eyes?

Connectivity: What power is the headset? Does it connect to a computer or have a little smartphone processor inside? Rumor has it that the Apple device will have an M3 Apple Silicon processor inside, but use a belt pack of some sort for power. Because it’s not dark or uncomfortable.

Running Time: This is a direct consequence for connectivity as run time is a function of either the efficiency and size of the battery, or physical connection to wall power. In any case, that’s how long you can run the headset before it gets dark. Apple should do relatively well here because of its deep experience with battery technology.

It’s possible that Apple will be willing to charge enough to make it work in order to drive home all six non-price factors. If so, then a great deal of objections would have gone away.

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But the rumor mongers aren’t calling the Apple device “Glass”. They’re still calling it a headset. So while Apple may manage to make the unit look hideous, it’s unlikely the company is knocking it out of the park.

use cases

I’m wearing an augmented reality headset right now. I’ve worn it since my teens. I only have one app in my setup, Vision Correction, but that has been a killer app for me. To be clear, I’m talking about my glasses. I use them to watch TV, drive, use my computer, and occasionally work in the shop.

While I’ve paid around $20 for my glasses recently, I, like Jason Perlo, spent more than $700 for a special-purpose pair back in the day. Unfortunately, the Superfocus lens that both Jason and I bought eventually broke, and the company went out of business. But when they worked, they were a great help.

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Being able to look at my different computers and work on them was a huge productivity issue for me a decade ago, so being able to get my work done and reduce eye strain was well worth the extra money. My setup and my eyes changed over time, and I can now use the same pair of corrective lenses for both distance and computer work.

My point is this: If there’s a killer app, people will pay a high price. I switched to Mac as my primary work OS because Final Cut Pro only works on Mac. Using Final Cut saved me one day a week from using Premiere Pro—a huge productivity gain that made the perceived (but not really accurate) extra cost of a Mac worthwhile.

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So what’s the use case for the new Apple headset? Some obvious vertical examples are education, remote area support, real estate sales, and medicine. But while the business world for the Mac and iPhone has grown significantly over the past decade, Apple is still a mass market player.

Is There a Broad Market Use for the Apple Headset?

If this was still the time of the pandemic, you could say that video conferencing is that killer app. The ability to be “there” and “face” with people in meetings may have made the Apple headset investment worth it. But we are no longer on lockdown, and most companies are back to doing business in the office.

Gaming, assuming you don’t vomit, will undoubtedly be awesome in any modern VR headset. Apple hosts a lot of games on iOS, so it’s likely a win for gaming headsets. But while people may spend $500 for a gaming headset, they’re not going to drop three grand. Without a doubt, gaming on VR will be big, but only once the price point and hardware become practical for the purpose.

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A compelling use case is being demonstrated by a company named Visible, which produces a limited release product called Spacetop. This is a laptop that runs without a screen. Instead, you use the AR glasses to view what appears to be a wide screen monitor. Its power is attractive for both portability and privacy. Interestingly, the specs the company uses aren’t terrible. They seem quite light and comfortable, even when connected to a computer. ar glasses And Laptops are $2,000.

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Other than these applications, there doesn’t appear to be a broad market use for the Apple headset. This brings me back to my original question…

What would justify paying $3,000 for Apple’s headset?

ZDNET editor-in-chief Jason Hinner says: “We can be sure of one thing: If Apple launches a headset, it looks like it has a product that breaks new ground.”

I agree Apple is never one to launch mediocre, even-performing products. It always has some kind of special sauce in its product definition. But the more I think about it, the more I suspect that Apple won’t be launching a headset — at least not for the consumer market.

Three thousand dollars, without any killer apps — or even with the few killer apps that Apple hasn’t leaked yet — isn’t going to appeal to the mass market. Also, many of us shy away from holding a large object over our eyes for any length of time.

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Here’s more: Apple is launching a development kit for app developers and corporate clients who have applications in related verticals. This is not unprecedented. At WWDC 2020, Apple launched the Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kit, a modded Mac mini running an early build of the then-new M1 processor.

WWDC is an ideal time to showcase the technology of Reality Pro (we expect Apple to name the headset). This is an ideal time to recruit developers to see what they can do with it. It’s also an ideal time to let those developers get their hands, er, heads on one. It makes total sense, and any developer who has an app that might be able to take advantage of the AR and VR capability of the Apple headset is sure to jump at the chance to test it.

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I’m not developing iOS apps anymore, so I have no reason to buy a headset anymore. But once the final product is released, once we know how it plays with glasses-wearing users, and once it costs less than $1,500, I’ll give it a serious look .

Of course, all of the above are guesses. We’ll know more on Monday. Do you think my predictions are on target? If not, what is your prediction? Let me know in the comments below.

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