VRdirect CEO: Apple is playing the long game with the Vision Pro

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has posted an updated forecast for Apple’s Vision Pro headset, claiming production was being cut by several hundred thousand units. This came after Mark Gurman of Bloomberg said noted that demand for Vision Pro demos was “way down” and sales have significantly slowed.

Some critics and naysayers are using these latest reports, which are true, to dance on Virtual Reality’s grave. However, Rolf Illenberger, founder and CEO of VRdirect, a software company specializing in virtual reality, believes those skeptics are too busy focused on the present and not a long-term vision for what it could become and how VR could change everything.

“The Vision Pro was always aimed at developers, always priced for developers, and the company’s product map is telling you that first-gen isn’t next-gen,” he says. “The fact that the Vision Pro managed to do a billion dollars in estimated sales from Apple fanatics after its launch is, from our standpoint, a victory in itself. This was always a long game for Apple.”

Illenberger says there are significant signs that the pieces are there for Apple’s VR devices to become great, like the iPhone and Apple Watch became great tech products. The immersive videos from Apple TV are incredible, albeit limited, essentially creating a personalized IMAX theater setting. Businesses and enterprise users are opening up to the capabilities of the device to change onboarding, recruiting, marketing, sales, education and even e-commerce. They’re also being courted by Apple, who sees a B2B play in addition to B2C.

“Remember, the education sector was one of Apple’s biggest plays with the iMac and initially the MacBook,” Illenberger says. “They generated billions selling to schools, colleges and universities, building lifelong consumer affinities in the process. VR will probably be no different.”