Back when Apple’s Vision Pro headset was announced in June 2023, the company promised an early 2024 release, but without comitting to a specific date. Now, Apple is ready to sell the Vision Pro, and we have dates for both pre-orders and an actual announcement.
Apple has announced that the Vision Pro, its first foray into virtual/mixed reality, will be landing on store shelves at long last on February 2nd. Pre-orders are set to begin on January 19th at 5 AM Pacific Time (8 AM Eastern Time), so roughly two weeks from now, with units shipping over the course of the following days. The headset is set to go on sale at the previously-announced $3,499 price point, so hopefully, you’ve been saving up some money for the last six months.
Apple’s Vision Pro is the first time Apple ventured into a new product category since the Apple Watch was announced back in 2015, and the stakes are high. The company has already released developer resources and documentation to get developers started with making apps for the headset. This should mean that when the time comes for you to unbox it, you should already have a sizable ecosystem of native apps to get started with, though the full scope won’t be known until release day (or the first wave of reviews). It will likely grow much bigger once the product is already available to purchase, too. App developers can mark their iPhone and iPad apps as compatible with the Vision Pro, so there will be a lot of iPad-like apps on day one, but other apps and games will need more work to function in VR.
This February release is also only happening in the United States, while most other Apple products have a simultanous launch in several countries. Apple did promise that it would release the headset in other countries this year, but didn’t say any specific dates. If you’re in the US, though, get ready for pre-orders to go live in a few days. Supply might be limited, since a few rumors regarding reduced production of the Vision Pro made the rounds a few months ago.
Source: Apple
