William Gallagher
Eighteen minutes after Apple began taking pre-orders for the new Apple Vision Pro headset, stocks were sold out and shipping dates began slipping back — ultimately by months.
It's not as if Apple is going to stop anyone ordering an Apple Vision Pro, but anybody trying now is going to wait to get it. Buyers who got in as soon as pre-orders were opened at 5 a.m. Pacific (8 a.m. Eastern) will get their headsets on February 2, 2024, but almost instantly, that shipping date began slipping back.
After two hours of pre-orders, shipping dates for Apple Vision Pro were being listed as into March and in some cases even April.
This will be presented as a success for Apple and a presumption that the Vision Pro is an immediate hit. That may yet be true, but it can't be assessed yet because there is also the factor that Apple is believed to have made only a small production run.
There are conflicting reports over just how small it is. Reports from China's supply chain estimate 400,000 units, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple has made only between 60,000 and 80,000 headsets. What appears to be certain, though, is that Apple has unquestionably made dramatically fewer Vision Pro headsets than it would for a new iPhone, for instance.
With a new iPhone, Apple also arranges separate stock for its retail stores. So it is likely — though not certain — that anyone missing out on the online pre-order may be able to pick up an Apple Vision Pro at a physical Apple Store on February 2, 2024.
US Apple Stores will at least be giving demonstrations of the Apple Vision Pro from that date.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
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Andrew Orr
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32 Comments
I held out until the 4th generation of iPhone; the third generation of iPad; and the second generation of Apple Watch.
It was a bit of a mess to order this morning. While the actual order process proceeded smoothly through the Apple Store on my iPad, when it came time to checkout it would not complete payment with ApplePay - it initially stated that the confirmed pickup and fit time at my local store was no longer available, and when I changed that to Feb 3rd it refused to accept payment. It kept saying "error with payment, try again later". An hour later after a half dozen calls to Apple (kept sending me to Tech support, and dropping calls, etc) and Apple Card (Goldman Sachs) I was finally transferred to this number 877-255-5923 and Jeff (a senior support staff) finally got the order to go through via screen share.
Very annoying but fortunately Apple Store kept the order in my cart so it was never lost. So despite not completing until nearly an hour later (after 6am PST) the order is confirmed and pick up is on Feb 3rd.
Good luck....
Perhaps the delivery slippage is due to the store pick-up process taking 1/2 hour and there are only so many appointment slots?
Lead times are going to get worse after February 2 if the Apple Vision works as advertised. Particularly if spacial video is a hit......iPhone 15 Pro sales may go up too.