Apple has 520 reasons its $3,499 headset will prevail

At $3,499, most Apple Inc. fans are unlikely to be lining up around the block to buy the company's new Vision Pro headset unveiled Monday. But they will certainly be lining up to try it, such is the buzz already underway for what Apple hopes is a new computing platform.

Fortunately for the company, there's no better place to sell such a device to a bewildered public than in one of its glistening retail stores. More than 520 locations, from Sao Paolo to Shanghai, were "built for moments like this," as Apple executive Mike Rockwell put it in the headset's launch video.

After a Covid-19 slump, foot traffic to Apple's stores is on the up, increasing 13% on last year, according to data from Gravy Analytics. With a further 53 new or revamped stores planned over the next few years, according to Bloomberg News, Apple's retail operation is an underestimated force in its efforts to win at mixed reality. 

Consider Apple's position to that of its rivals. Realizing that slick marketing materials can only get you so far, headset-makers over the past decade have gone to desperate lengths to get the technology onto the heads of a skeptical public. That's the real way to answer: What does it do? Why do I need one? How does it feel?

In 2015, Taiwan's HTC Corp. took its Vive headset on tour — stopping off at big events like San Diego Comic Con but also at college campuses and outlet malls. I once saw it at a San Francisco food festival, where it sat ignored, failing to compete with tacos.

Microsoft Corp., which had high hopes for its Hololens augmented-reality device, tried demo stands in shopping malls. In that environment, its heavy hardware, with a small square of fuzzy digital content, was underwhelming. Meta Platforms Inc. has tried a similar approach, setting up kiosks in airports and temporary pop-up stores in several major cities. In 2017, though, Meta closed 200 demo stations in Best Buy stores, where "ambassadors" would reportedly go days without giving a single demo. 

The company looked at Apple with envy. Prior to renaming itself Meta — itself a marketing ploy to grab the public's attention around the new tech — Facebook pondered a vast retail network of its own. A New York Times report in 2021 detailed how executives envisioned a chain that "will eventually span the world" and act as a gateway through which the company would introduce the public to innovations from its Reality Labs, the division responsible for its virtual reality headset.

Today, Meta has just one permanent, dedicated store. Opened last year, it can be found in Burlingame, California, a city just south of San Francisco, and next door to buildings housing Meta's Reality Labs team, the group behind its mixed-reality efforts. Convenient for them, if not shoppers — if the store was any further out of the way, it would literally be in the San Francisco Bay. "Ultimately," said the company when it opened the store, "our goal with the Meta Store is to show people what's possible with our products today, while giving a glimpse into the future as the metaverse comes to life — and hopefully demystifying that concept a bit in the process."

A better place for a store might be Grand Central Terminal, or Covent Garden, or even The Louvre — all locations where you can find an Apple store today. When in 2014 Apple hired former Burberry Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Angela Ahrendts to run its retail arm, its aim was to create a luxury environment in which people were comfortable, even eager, to hand over thousands of dollars.

Meta has no such connection with consumers. The vast majority of us haven't ever bought a product, of any kind, from Meta. (Quite the opposite. Why go to a Meta store when you can see the product it's selling just by looking in the mirror?)

Apple doesn't need to make mixed reality seem exciting to get customers through its doors. They're turning up in droves anyway, to buy new iPhones or to visit the Genius Bar for IT support. Its stores are already well-established as places for learning, with comfortable spaces set out for tutorials and talks. Introducing mixed reality to the mainstream in this environment could prove a doddle, and that may be enough for this first-generation product.

Yet success for Vision Pro might best be measured not by how many people buy it, but by how many people merely give it a go.

Dave Lee is Bloomberg Opinion's US technology columnist.