Apple Vision Pro returns are happening, but is it actually a problem for Apple yet?
Some early buyers are returning their Apple Vision Pro.
Apple provides a 14-day window during which you can return the Vision Pro for a full price, and it’s closing soon for folks who bought the device on day one — launch day was Feb. 2, so the last day to return it would be Friday, Feb. 16. And yes, there are multiple reports on social media, assembled by The Verge, with people claiming they’re returning the device for this reason or another.
The Verge’s own product manager Parker Ortolani tweeted that he’s returning the Vision Pro as it’s “just too uncomfortable to wear.” Tech influencer Rjey wrote that the Vision Pro is “probably the most mind blowing piece of tech” he’s ever tried, but that he “can’t deal with these headaches after 10 minutes of use.”
Entrepreneur Adam Hollander is also returning it, due to it being “simultaneously ludicrously impressive and extremely disappointing at the same time.”
There are more reports like these. It’s very tough, however, to gauge how significant the return rate for the device is based on social media posts alone. Apple is rumored to have sold hundreds of thousands of Vision Pro units in the first couple of days after pre-orders opened. The company hasn’t shared any official figures on how many units it has sold so far, or how many have been returned.
Furthermore, the Vision Pro is both an extremely interesting and, at $ 3,499, a very expensive device. This combo practically guaranteed that there would be people who would get the Vision Pro just to have fun with it for a couple of days on their own, with no real intention of keeping it.
Apple probably won’t share official sales numbers even in its next quarterly earnings report, and there’s no way the typically secretive company will willingly admit an unusually high return rate for a new product, if it’s the case.
Is it possible that Apple has a problem on its hands? Absolutely. The Vision Pro is not only a new device, it’s a new type of device, with an entirely new app ecosystem. Many things don’t work perfectly yet. Also, it’s something that you wear on your head and over your eyes, partially excluding yourself from the real world (video passthrough be damned), and the history of VR headsets has shown that only small subsets of people are willing to wear these daily, for long periods of time. Add to that the exorbitant price, more than three times higher than that of its closest competitor, the Meta Quest Pro, and the result for Apple could be a dud.
Those factors, however, play into the other side of the argument as well: this thing is new. Give it time. We simply don’t know, at this point, whether the return rate of the Vision Pro is higher than usual (or expected) for a new Apple product. As for whether the product ends up being a success, we’ll just have to wait — perhaps even for its second or third iteration.
