However, a Finnish company, which is a Vision Pro competitor and sells its own AR/VR headset, has said that Apple Vision Pro is not expensive at all.
Is Vision Pro really cheap?
A Finland-based company called Varjo makes Varjo XR-3 AR/VR headset at $6,500. The company has welcomed Apple’s foray into the AR/VR headset segment and believes that Vision Pro will help it sell more AR/VR devices. Varjo is considered to be a leading XR (extended reality) device making company in Europe. Its devices are quite expensive but feature loaded. In fact, Varjo’s AR/VR headsets are used for military pilot training. As reported by TNW, Varjo believes that Apple’s entry into AR/VR headset industry will be beneficial for the entire industry. Speaking about the announcement of Apple Vision Pro, Urho Konttori, Varjo’s CTO and co-founder of Varjo said: “Apple’s entrance into XR with Vision Pro is an important moment for our whole industry. Mixed reality is already a fixture in the enterprise sector… We hope today is the turning point for consumers when it starts being part of their everyday lives too, with promising applications for entertainment, personal productivity, and communication.” While Varjo’s target audience is mostly enterprises and quite different from what Apple Vision Pro would cater to, many believe that the tech giant’s foray will provide a boost to other such companies, at least in the short term. Sam Dale, a technology analyst who works at market research firm IDTechE said, “I expect that, in the short term at least, Vision Pro will largely create opportunities for other businesses by raising the profile of XR generally. This includes Varjo, which I believe targets a substantially different customer type to the Vision Pro.” Varjo has established a noticeable control in the AR/VR solution for enterprises. The company claims that more than a quarter of the Fortune 100 companies are using Varjo devices today, including some government departments. Thrillseeker Media Group considers Apple to be a cheaper Varjo XR 3 competition. In a tweet, the group wrote “Apple’s Vision Pro isn’t a quest or index or quest pro competitor. It’s a Varjo XR3 competitor at half the price.”
