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Shares of tech giant Apple fell about 1% Monday despite a slew of product announcements, including a $3,500 headset for augmented and virtual reality.
What is Wall Street saying about the company’s much-anticipated new gadget?
Best guess, traders are wondering who this product is for. At $3,500, it doesn’t seem to be targeting gamers, who many tech analysts have long said would be at the forefront of virtual-reality adoption.
It also doesn’t seem to be pitched as a revolution in home entertainment. Anyone who can afford the hefty price tag of Apple’s Vision Pro headset probably already has a state-of-the-art home-theater setup.
So who is this for? Developers? OK, fine. But that’s not nearly a large enough market to justify the millions that went into creating the device.
So that’s one question mark.
Another is whether there’s much interest in, or need for, augmented and virtual reality. Facebook parent Meta has invested billions into getting this market off the ground, and so far has nothing but losses to show for its time and money.
Most consumers just don’t seem interested in the bells and whistles of this technology — not to mention the headache-inducing clunkiness of the hardware.
I’ve tried earlier iterations of VR headsets, and found the user experience uncomfortable and nausea-making.
The main selling point of VR is creation of game-like virtual environments in which people can interact via cartoon avatars. To date, demand for such functionality has been limited at best.
AR, in which data is superimposed over whatever you’re viewing in real life, is clearly more to Apple’s taste — that’s why you can see through its headset as if you’re sporting a pair of ski goggles.
Think Iron Man. When Tony Stark wears his super suit, he sees steady data feeds projected at his eyes.
Current AR tech is nowhere close to that. And we’re probably many years away from hardware and content providing anything close to an Iron Man experience.
So Apple has rolled out a toy that’s very expensive and, for the moment, seems heavier on hype and hope than on usefulness.
And at $3,500, it’s a gadget only for hardcore technophiles.
That’s why Apple’s stock was down.
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