Finance Link News, October 14th (Editor Xiaoxiang). Since the launch of Vision Pro, Apple has been working hard to attract large software developers to develop applications for this innovative cutting-edge head-mounted display device. However, the current situation facing the Vision Pro ecosystem is clearly not as expected.

Data shows that since its release in January this year, the speed of new applications released on Vision Pro has been slowing down. So far, some of the most successful VR software developers have not chosen to tailor apps specifically for Vision Pro. Due to the lack of killer apps, many Vision Pro users find the device significantly less practical and choose to sell it, leading to a downward trend in the second-hand market prices of Vision Pro...

Bertrand Nepveu, who worked on Vision Pro development at Apple, said, 'This is a chicken-and-egg question.'

Nepveu is currently the investment director at Triptyq Capital in the VR/AR field. He and other app developers believe that Apple should provide funding to app developers to encourage them to port existing apps from other headsets to Vision Pro or develop new content. This approach is already common in the industry, with Apple's main competitor in the headset space, Meta, having funded numerous developers and even acquired several app developers.

According to Counterpoint Research, Meta is currently the strongest competitor Apple faces, with Meta holding a market share of 74% in all head-mounted products in the second quarter of this year.

Last month, Meta launched the latest head-mounted device, Quest 3S - with performance between Quest 2 and Quest 3, starting at only $299, such a low price is enough to attract a new wave of users. Meta also showcased the first AR glasses prototype product, Orion, which can display digital content from the real world on transparent lenses. Although Orion has not officially launched for sale, its unveiling has sparked enthusiastic responses from analysts and enthusiasts.

Is it difficult to establish the Vision Pro ecosystem?

When Vision Pro was initially launched, apple actually adopted a bold experimental asia vets: before similar VR/AR products were widely favored by consumers, it launched this product at an industry-high price of $3499, betting that Vision Pro could open up a sunrise industry that was still in its infancy.

However, it is quite obvious that Vision Pro needs a "killer app" to become popular, similar to how the success of the iPhone more than a decade ago was due to this. However, so far, the ecosystem of Vision Pro has been developing slowly, with many developers still in a wait-and-see mode.

According to the data from the analytics company Appfigures, the number of new apps launched by Vision Pro in recent months has significantly decreased - in September, only 10 apps were launched in the Vision App Store, far fewer than the hundreds launched in the first two months of the device.

According to the statistics of the company, as of September, there are approximately 1770 apps available for Vision Pro on the App Store. Appfigures stated that only 34% of the applications are specifically developed for Vision Pro, while the rest are versions of existing apple applications that have simply added features to adapt to Vision Pro.

This number is significantly lower compared to the data provided by apple officially. Apple had stated in August that there are currently over 2500 applications developed for Vision Pro. Regarding this, Appfigures mentioned that part of the reason for the discrepancy between these two numbers might be that some applications have insufficient usage to be registered in the usage rate rankings, making it difficult for analytics companies to track them.

Tim Bajarin, a long-time analyst for apple at Creative Strategies, said, "We are now in a phase where the growth of Vision Pro applications may seem slow, but you have to consider that those who are developing the applications want to create the best possible applications. They are not in a hurry to market these applications."

From a comparison of devices, the development speed of the Vision Pro application ecosystem is obviously slower than the initial iPhone and Apple Watch. In 2008, about a year after the launch of the iPhone's App Store, apple had already stated that it had 0.05 million applications. After just five months since its release, the Apple Watch had 10,000 apps.

Compared to Vision Pro, the starting prices of these two devices are lower, making them more attractive to the general consumer. At the same time, the technical difficulty of developing applications for Vision Pro is much higher than for many simple iPhone and smartwatch applications.

The price of second-hand Vision Pro continues to decline.

From the internal comparison of head-mounted display manufacturers, the achievements of Vision Pro seem less than ideal. Simon Carless, founder of the gaming consulting company GameDiscoverCo, estimates that there are about 3,500 applications in the Meta Quest store. Carless states that the difference between these two platforms is that Quest is mainly a VR gaming ecosystem attempting to move into AR content, while Vision Pro is primarily an AR platform.

Apple has not disclosed any sales data for Vision Pro so far, but analysts generally believe that the sales of this head-mounted display are not ideal. According to the well-known Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in April this year, Apple has reduced the estimated first-year shipment volume of Vision Pro from 0.7 million-0.8 million units to 0.4 million-0.45 million units.

According to Counterpoint Research's data, in the second quarter of this year, Vision Pro's sales plummeted by 80% compared to the first quarter. The research company stated that a large portion of initial buyers returned the devices within the two-week full refund period allowed by Apple.

Games are the most popular type of application on Meta Quest, whereas Apple positions Vision Pro as a more versatile device for work, health, and entertainment. Vision Pro does not rely on controllers required by most games but uses eye-tracking technology to allow users to interact with software. The lack of controllers hinders some game development for Vision Pro.

Due to the overall lack of applications for Vision Pro, some early users found there was not much to do or play on the headset, leading them to return or resell the devices early.

In recent months, the resale price of Vision Pro on the second-hand market has been plummeting. On the international second-hand electronic product trading platform Swappa, where the official price of Vision Pro is $3499, the average second-hand price in September was only $2494, further below the $2710 in August.

23-year-old software engineer Rostyslav Alieksieienko received his Vision Pro in February this year and said he tried everything he could do with it. Alieksieienko downloaded all the software recommended by Apple and tried to use it for work. But he found it difficult to find reasons to continue using it.

"At first, I was very excited," Alieksieienko said. "But it didn't integrate into my life. I quickly ran out of things to do with it. Then it just sat idle."