Apple Vision Pro to face challenges from Huawei and other rivals in China: Report

Apple Vision Pro headset might face tough challenges in China due to Huawei and other competitors. The iPhone maker is likely to launch its new product in the coming weeks, starting the pre-order process this Friday for Chinese consumers.

Inputs reveal that Apple will begin shipping the Vision Pro headset to its customers on June 28 with a price tag of $4138 (29,999 yuan). This is $600 more expensive than the US variant which costs $3499 exclusive of tax for a 256GB model.

Note that the price for Hong Kong stores differs from the mainland. It is HK$27999 ($3862). Apple’s website also reads that every consumer can only buy two headsets.

Challenges:

Due to this expensive move, Apple could face problems in the Chinese consumer market. Tech vendors like Huawei are already in the news to build their own headsets with innovative features as well as at half the price of Apple’s products.

This may eventually attract consumers to stick with the native products, leading to unfavorable conditions for the iPhone maker. Another brand ByteDance (owner of TikTok) is currently ruling the market with its Pico subsidiary with 56.6% share.

Reports further say that Apple is teaming up with Chinese partners to bring Netflix-like facilities to its Vision Pro. The recent corporation took place with Tencent Holdings for Tencent Video. How far this would help the firm would be worth looking at.

A few analysts mentioned earlier that 2024 could be a recovery year for the VR field, which declined to 23.5% last year. Perhaps changes in this aspect will be visible in the upcoming months.

Huawei and Apple have locked horns in China over the ‘Vision Pro’ trademark as the former issued it in 2019, registering it in 2021. But it looks like things have settled as the “Apple Vision Pro” trademark for the American company was approved in March 2024. We can expect more interesting inputs on this topic shortly.

(Source – SCMP)