Apple’s Vision Pro launches February 2 with pre-orders starting today. The mixed reality headset will have more than 150 3D movies available at launch, including content from Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, as well as “immersive originals,” Apple says. While the company is positioning the $3,500 headset as “the ultimate entertainment device,” touting mind-blowing specs and a transformative experience, gaming currently drives an estimated 30 percent of immersive hardware revenue and non-gaming entertainment accounts for only 8 to 13 percent. Apple’s announcement focuses more on TV, movies, and sports than the Apple Arcade game hub.

“With more pixels than a 4K TV for each eye, combined with an advanced spatial audio system, Vision Pro enables users to watch new shows and films from top streaming services including Apple Originals from Apple TV+,” notes the Apple Newsroom post.

Apple computers have never been designed with gaming specs in mind, resulting a dearth of relationships with game developers and publishers. Apple’s description of the Vision Pro as “the ultimate entertainment device” is at this point geared more toward developers and content producers than consumers, and could pay off in two to five years, as more content (including games) becomes available, and the headset price drops.

It is unlikely that consumers who are not rushing out to buy the $500 Meta Quest 3 (or the $250 Meta Quest 2) to immerse themselves in narrative content will decide they need a $3,500 Vision Pro to watch the 3D films available for the Vision Pro at launch, Variety reports.

In the meantime, Apple can target the enterprise sector Statista says will account for 22 percent of the virtual reality headset market in 2024, or the 16 percent using the devices for education and training market, or the 10 percent healthcare slice. Each of those is less likely to flinch at a $3,500 headset purchase than a consumer assessing entertainment options.

Statista projects mixed reality will be a $182.4 billion by 2028, with “gaming and entertainment” claiming the largest (42 percent) chunk.

While most analysts combine gaming and entertainment into a single category, IDC has assessed gaming as driving 28 percent of global AR/VR headset sales, and entertainment at just under 13 percent. A Fortune Business Insights report from last year put gaming at 23 percent and entertainment at about 10 percent.

TechCrunch writes that the Vision Pro will “come with Apple Immersive Video, which is a new entertainment format that features 180-degree 3D 8K recordings captured with Spatial Audio” from the iPhone 15, positioning Apple to become the YouTube of the metaverse.

Related:
Here’s What You Need to Know About Preordering the Apple Vision Pro, The Verge, 1/16/24
Apple Vision Pro Hands-On: Immersive Video, Disney+ App, Floating Keyboard, Engadget, 1/16/24
Meta Can Ride Apple’s Coattails to Victory in Mixed Reality, Bloomberg, 1/16/24
Latest Apple Vision Pro Hands-On (Video), Brian Tong, 1/17/24
Vision Pro Headset Shows the Future of Computing Is Bulky and Weird, Wired, 1/18/24
The One Part of Apple Vision Pro That Apple Doesn’t Want You to See, Wired, 1/18/24
Apple Sees Surgery, Training as Future Vision Pro Growth Areas, Bloomberg, 1/18/24