Apple’s long-rumored AR headset, the Apple Vision Pro, is now available to buy in Apple Stores — at least while stocks last.
It was a long road from there to around 2018 or 2019, when Tim Cook says he first tried on what would ultimately become the Apple Vision Pro.
After all those years, all that work, and so much secrecy that literally hundreds of patents were filed so carefully that nobody noticed them, Apple has done it.
As of Friday, February 2, 2024, the finished Apple Vision Pro is arriving in the hands of people who pre-ordered, and it is going on display in Apple Stores across America.
This is a whole new product category for Apple, the first since the Apple Watch back in 2015, and we’re all just at the start of it. That decade or so of secret research within Apple is one thing, but now it’s out in the real world, we’re going to see and learn so much more.
Not least because there’s an argument that actually it’s far from finished.
Even so, February 2, 2024, is a milestone in what’s been a very long product gestation. Back in 2014, Apple was under sufficient criticism about how it wasn’t releasing new devices, that Tim Cook made a rare comment about it.
“There will be new categories,” Cook said. “We’re not ready to talk about it, but we’re working on some really great stuff.”
Apple Vision Pro is available now, starting at $3,499. Pre-orders sold out within minutes, though, and Apple was believed to have only made a few units, compared to a typical iPhone, iPad, or Mac launch.
