Does Apple have enough Vision Pros to launch internationally?

Something about recent claims Apple has pulled back production orders on the Vision Pro don’t quite ring true.

Reading around, and everyone seems to have different sales estimates for Vision Pro, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo saying demand is low and Apple has cut production orders. What if this isn’t quite the case?

What if…?

What if Apple has simply been engaged in stockpiling Vision Pro units with the aim of introducing the device globally this summer? What if it now has enough of these in strategic stockpiles worldwide and is counting down to international launch?

If that were the case, then what we have here is a lull in production as the company now has enough units in place to ship the device into new territories. Apple has, after all, always promised to ship Vision Pro outside the US this year.

This also means that as Apple heads into the next quarter it will have new products in the form of Vision Pro sales outside the US as well as anticipated new iPads and potentially Product RED iPhones to help sustain its revenue.

We don’t know too much, of course. We may learn a little more during the company’s fiscal call and its special keynote next week.

All we can really be certain of is that Apple faces a challenging business environment, as most companies who don’t sell weapons now do. At the price the company will never have expected iPhone style demand for Vision Pro, and the fact that it isn’t yet internationally available suggests a really big opportunity to shift more of the things in global markets.

Vision on vision 

After all, the truth is that we are all being buffeted by a continued wave of economic and social insecurity that kind of began with Covid and has transformed into dystopia, global instability, war, and economies teetering on recession. Clearly that’s not the best of times to introduce a cutting edge $3k+ product, but Apple did it all the same.

Taking that risk means Vision Pro seems to be emerging to be a fantastic device for medical and enterprise usage, building on Apple’s existing strength in both markets. It’s also picking up interest from developers, early adopters, and the idle rich who really should be contributing to my Kofi account. Consumers are curious, but it’s not a mass market vibe yet.

So that’s the context in which I see the production speculation.

There are some good things coming.

The imminent introduction of the AI iPhone/iPad/Mac should excite Apple’s loyal customer base, fanning the flame of demand as the company builds towards its traditional strongest sales cycle towards the end of the year.

We’ll see what happens next over the coming weeks, of course, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to learn Apple intends introducing Vision Pro into new territories, perhaps as soon as the upcoming Apple keynote. I imagine production may begin again after that.

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