Apple Mixed-Reality Headset Shipments Now Estimated to 'Fall Short of 100,000 Units' This Year
Apple's mixed-reality headset will be primarily targeted at developers and could now see shipments of fewer than 100,000 units this year, Taiwanese research firm TrendForce reports.
TrendForce claims that the headset's
high cost, difficulty to manufacture, and focus on developers will "restrict sales predominantly to pre-orders for this year." While Apple's headset could stimulate some new demand in the AR/VR product category, the high price tag of the device, believed to be in the ballpark of
~$3,000, will apparently pose a significant barrier to broader market growth.
Trendforce forecasts that shipments of the new headset will now "fall short" of 100,000 units this year, with Apple potentially capping production at no more than 300,000 units.
In January 2022, Apple was believed to have told its suppliers to expect sales of seven million to 10 million units during its first year on sale. This expectation was then seemingly downgraded to three million units.
In August last year, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple was planning to ship no more than 1.5 million units in 2023. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman recently said that Apple now expects to sell around 900,000 headsets this year. In December last year, Kuo revised his estimate down to "less than 500,000 units."
Gurman has also postulated that Apple may sell only one headset per day per retail store, which would equate to annual sales of just over 180,000 units. TrendForce's estimate of less than 100,000 units is the lowest shipment estimate for Apple's headset to date.
Popular Stories
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...
Apple Vision Pro, Apple's $3,500 spatial computing device, appears to be following a pattern familiar to the AR/VR headset industry – initial enthusiasm giving way to a significant dip in sustained interest and usage. Since its debut in the U.S. in February 2024, excitement for the Apple Vision Pro has noticeably cooled, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On...
Apple headset concept by Marcus Kane
Top Rated Comments