WSJ on : Apple Crapple's Vomit Pro / how stupid it is ...................................
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WSJ
May 15, 2025
They Paid $3,500 for Apple’s Vision Pro. A Year Later, It Still Hurts.
The mixed-reality headset launched last year with great promise, but all these buyers got were dirty looks and sore necks; ‘I don’t need that’
By Joseph Pisani
Early adopters of Apple’s Vision Pro headsets have one thing to show for the year they’ve spent with their pricey purchases: regret.
“It’s just collecting dust,” Dustin Fox said about his mixed-reality headset, which looks like futuristic ski goggles. “I think I’ve probably used it four times in the last year.”
The $3,500 device sits in a bin with other gadgets he no longer picks up.
The Vision Pro launched in February 2024 with great promise. It was Apple’s first major product release in years! It’s the first device you look through and not at! Typing can be done in the air! But buyers who wore them in the wild say they got nothing but dirty looks and sore necks. Now, the devices are daily reminders of their misplaced bravado.
Fox, a realtor in Centreville, Va., had to have the Vision Pro as soon as it launched. “I’m like a little boy when something new comes out,” he said.
The 46-year-old thought he’d use it for work. Then he put it on his head.
“It’s way too heavy,” Fox said about the device, which weighs just over a pound. “I can’t wear it for more than 20 or 30 minutes without it hurting my neck.”
Tovia Goldstein was excited to wear his set to watch movies and TV shows. But he ended up needing breaks. “After 60 minutes, you can’t, you just have to throw it down,” he said. He hasn’t touched it in about four months.
Weight isn’t the only issue for the 24-year-old New Yorker. There also aren’t enough apps to make the Vision Pro worthwhile, he said.
Goldstein thinks from time to time about getting the headset out of the closet and dusting it off to see if any new apps have been added. But the pain in the neck he gets, plus the painfully long three minutes it takes to plug in the battery and wait for it to turn on, make him think again.
[ Note from Jon -- interesting how . . . with all of the media hype / coverage of the Vomit Pro, I never once heard about this three minute - business. ]
“I wouldn’t recommend anyone buying it,” he said, “unless you’re really rich and you don’t know what to do with your money.”
No player in the virtual reality space has yet to figure out how to drive widespread adoption of the technology. Apple hasn’t disclosed how many of the devices it has sold. The company has struggled to get developers to make apps for the Vision Pro, putting its success at risk, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Apple declined to comment.
It’s a disappointing reversal from the fanfare that accompanied the headset’s release last year, when CEO Tim Cook shook hands and chatted with fans at the flagship store in New York City. Soon after, the Vision Pro started showing up on streets, in restaurants and even at a basketball game.
“People were excited to be wearing it,” said Fox, who used to see people wearing the devices at his local mall. “Then it just died.” He hasn’t seen anyone with one in months.
Fox thought about selling his own headset, but realized he could never get close to the $3,500 he paid. “Every time I see it in the bin,” he said, “I feel total regret.”
Anshel Sag used to take his Vision Pro on flights to watch movies. “I got pretty dirty looks from people,” said the tech analyst from San Diego. “I don’t need that.”
Another reason the 35-year-old stopped flying with it: the size of the case.
Sold separately for $199, the Vision Pro’s pillow-like white protector is about a foot tall, 9 inches wide and 6.5 inches deep. “It takes up like half of the volume of my carry-on,” said Sag.
When Anthony Racaniello wore his set for a nearly six-hour flight to Las Vegas, the flight attendant kept rolling the drink carts past him without asking if he wanted something. The 41-year-old Philadelphia resident blames the Vision Pro for his thirst.
“You look like you have a sleep mask on,” he said, “and people are going to treat you that way.”
Racaniello also tried to wear it in the office, thinking he could fill out spreadsheets and type e-mails at the media studio he runs. But colleagues either made fun of him, told him he looked creepy or asked him to take it off. “The best compliment I got was a light chuckle and, ‘It looks like you’re wearing ski goggles at work.’ ”
He recently sold his Vision Pro online for $1,900. He doesn’t miss it.
“It’s definitely a glimpse at the future. I just think it’s a ways away from there,” he said. “For now, you have to put on what feels like a 500-pound MacBook Pro, strap it to your face and have people laugh at you.”
The experience hasn’t, however, soured the Apple fan (who also bought the first iPhone) on the company. “This is the first time, ever, that I’ve thought an Apple product was just a bit early, or ahead of its time,” said Racaniello.
Yam Olisker, another Apple superfan, thought the Vision Pro would be the next iPhone. He flew to New York from Israel last year to be one of the first people to buy the headset. At the store he met Cook, and got him to sign the back of his iPhone and his Vision Pro’s box.
Olisker was wrong. “I use it much less than I expected,” said the 20-year-old YouTuber.
But he doesn’t regret the purchase. He still loves watching movies with his Vision Pro, especially 3-D films like the recent “Metallica,” sold as an immersive experience of the heavy-metal band’s “stadium-filling live shows.” “It feels like you’re at the concert,” he said.
He’s even figured out how to get through the movies without the weight of the Vision Pro bothering him: “I lie in bed.”
Write to Joseph Pisani at joseph.pisani@wsj.com
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