Apple’s cheaper Vision Pro tracker still won’t be cheap

Mark Gurman writes in his To light up newsletter for Bloomberg Today’s more affordable follow-up to the Apple Vision Pro will “probably” ditch the external display to help it achieve an internally discussed price tag of between $1,500 and $2,500. Gurman also reiterates what he wrote in June: that the most affordable version will likely run on an iPhone-grade chip, have fewer cameras, and have lower resolution screens inside.

Ditching the external display means Apple is locking one of Vision Pro’s flagship features – EyeSight – behind the paywall of the more expensive versions. EyeSight is the thing that lets you see an on-the-fly rendering of the wearer’s eyes so they can “look” at you when you’re talking to them, and so you can tell, at a glance, if they’re busy. or if they actually see what is in front of them.

Gurman writes that by deciding to prioritize releasing a more affordable version to the world, Apple got people to turn to it and move away from its technically difficult AR glasses project.

Nothing in Apple’s stated price range is “cheap,” although $1,500 is certainly more acceptable. But whether $2,500 seems like a big enough discount probably depends on whether an iPhone chip and other hardware modifications can deliver a good software experience. Especially if the company hopes to attract people who haven’t yet decided whether they want this sort of thing in their lives — a challenge that’s far from unique to Apple.