The Vision Pro is certainly a gem of technology, but it still needs some refinement before it replaces our productivity and/or entertainment devices. The first customers returned their mixed reality headset within 14 days after purchase with the aim of being reimbursed by Apple.
In his latest newsletter Power On broadcast Sunday February 18, 2024, journalist Mark Gurman reports the reasons given by these dissatisfied buyers.
Specifying that he spoke with more than a dozen people, the editor of the Bloomberg agency underlines that a large number of them gave one or more of the following five reasons:
- The device is too heavy, too cumbersome to manage. It causes headaches and is uncomfortable.
- The current lack of applications and video content does not justify the price displayed
- Work Features do not improve productivity compared to an external monitor plugged into a Mac. It is also difficult to use them for a long time.
- The screens are too bright, the field of vision is too narrow and the headset causes eye strain and vision problems
- The Apple Vision Pro can feel isolated from family and friends. There are no meaningful shared experiences yet and the Vision Pro cannot be easily passed on to others, as it requires fine tuning.
Mark Gurman explains that Apple Store demos would be “perhaps too effective†and would sell customers an experience that is still far from the currently possible uses. In certain stores, 10 to 15% of people who tried the Vision Pro would have purchased it subsequently, but faced with the disadvantages mentioned above, a disappointment between the ©mo and daily use of the device would explain certain returns.
For its part, Apple is trying to understand the reasons encouraging its customers to return its new product. Mark Gurman particularly emphasizes that with each return, “store employees question them about what went wrong…then report the information to a manager “so that any concerns can be escalated to the Cupertino headquartersâ€.