Most Apple products are easy to understand, even when they are new. Customers in 2007 may not have been familiar with smartphones, but they almost all understood the concept of a cell phone: the iPhone was like that, but more. The iPad was an iPhone, but bigger. Even the Apple Watch smartwatch category had a pretty similar precedent of stupid wristwatches to fall back on.
But Vision Pro, which will be available for pre-order on Friday, is a completely different proposition. Apple won’t just have to sell the product, it will have to sell the entire product category to customers who have never tried a VR headset. And that’s no easy task for busy store employees hoping to make a $3,499 sale.
With this in mind, the company has designed an in-depth sales demo that will ensure potential buyers have the best possible experience with the device. Unlike the brief overview and demonstration of features available to the average visitor expressing interest in a MacBook or HomePod, this will last, according to a new report, a full 25 minutes.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg journalist and prolific leaker Mark Gurman reveals that Apple has prepared “its most sophisticated sales pitch ever” for the launch of Vision Pro. This begins with a facial scan to ensure the correct light seal, padding and headband are used for a perfect fit, followed, if necessary, by a second scan to choose the appropriate lenses, a basic introduction the controls and the device interface, and some calibration exercises.
Once all this is taken care of, the demo itself can begin. The potential customer will be guided through a four-step process during which they will view still images, panoramas, 3D “spatial” images, videos and immersive sports films and clips, scroll web pages in Safari, organize app windows in space and check out some third-party apps. The goal, Gurman says, is to create an experience that is “compelling but not exhausting, ideally leaving them wanting to know more.” According to Gurman, it may also be relevant that some retail workers have complained of fatigue and sweating after half an hour of using Vision Pro. Ideally, all demonstration would stop before getting to this point.
It remains to be seen how well Apple’s existing store network will withstand the logistical problems this will create: if a trained member of staff has to be taken out of service for half an hour every time someone expresses interest in Vision Pro , will there be enough employees to support everyone? Will there even be enough demo units available? (Gurman says larger stores might have more than a dozen, but things might be tougher for smaller stores.) The problem here is that Apple expects an initial surge in interest, followed by of a drop, so any change in store configuration will have to be temporary.
Thanks to its newness and high price, Vision Pro isn’t expected to sell in large numbers, but it will likely sell out by Friday. But in the longer term, Apple hopes that the Vision ecosystem of products will take over from the iPhone as the flagship seller, and that demonstrating headphones will then become the primary task of Apple Store employees. So in the end, this might end up being one of those nice problems to have.
