The Apple Vision Pro finally went on sale this past weekend and customers who ordered early should get the headset by February 2. However, shipping times have now slipped past that date, indicating that the company sold out of its initial inventory.
While that seems like a success, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo thinks that the Vision Pro didn’t sell out fast enough. While he estimates Apple sold some 160,000 to 180,000 Vision Pro units, “shipping times remained unchanged 48 hours after pre-orders opened,” said Kuo in his analysis of this past weekend’s sales. “It indicates that demand may quickly taper off after the core fans and heavy users place their orders.” A follow-up report from MacRumors corroborated these estimates, saying Apple had sold around 200,000 Vision Pro headsets during the two-week preorder period.
In other words, it didn’t sell like an iPhone. “Popular iPhone models also sell out immediately upon pre-order, and shipping times typically increase to several weeks within hours,” said Kuo. However, Kuo thinks that Apple is on its way to selling 500,000 units–after all, he writes, Apple has a “massive user base of over 1.2 billion active users. As long as about 0.007% of users are willing to buy after pre-ordering, Vision Pro can sell out after opening for pre-order.” Still, that makes the Vision Pro “a very niche product.”
But this “very niche product” has enough demand that Apple’s supply chain partners such as Luxeshare in China will work overtime during the Lunar New Year celebration, which starts on February 10. Chinese companies usually shut down during the Lunar New Year, often for a week or two–it’s akin to the December holiday break observed in Western countries.
More details on receiving a Vision Pro
If you did preorder the Vision Pro this past weekend, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman posted some tidbits on what to expect when it comes time to receive your headset.
- When picking up the device, you can immediately leave, experience a demo, or proceed with a fitting where parts can be swapped if they don’t fit. If you go home without a fitting, you can come back and exchange parts that fit improperly.
- Customers who do an in-store demo have the option to buy the Vision Pro they were fitted for. However, some stores will not have inventory for customers who did not already preorder.
- Vision Pro comes in a big box and a “commemorative shopping bag.”
For more information, check out our Apple Vision Pro superguide.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor
Roman has covered technology since the early 1990s. His career started at MacUser, and he's worked for MacAddict, Mac|Life, and TechTV.