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Maybe this is cynical, but my marketing class taught us to look at everything Apple does under the view of the best marketers in the world. The marketers told

Maybe this is cynical, but my marketing class taught us to look at everything Apple does under the view of the best marketers in the world. The marketers told them to go for the 'exclusive club' vibe by doing in-store appointments. Wonder if there is some messaging by the Apple leader at the appointment that explains how this is cool, exclusive, luxury. Reinforcing the purchase decision. Need to make the barrier to entry extra high too, so when people laugh at it in public, they are fully committed to defend it. Who knows maybe they will go full abercrombie and make sure people who are older than 40 get it slightly later than 20 year old females. Eventually it gets normalized and people use it.

mytailorisrich 3y ago
I suspect that they don't expect high volumes so rather than giving the impression that the launch is a failure they turn it into an exclusive club product.
- georgespencer 3y ago
  Supply chain scuttlebutt is that the display technology is so constrained[^1] that Apple expects to only _manufacture_ 400,000 headsets next year. It's possible that this product will flop, but I can't see it being anything other than sold out everywhere for most of 2024. Heck, you can make a reasonable case for there only being 10k-30k SKUs in channel inventory at launch, and Apple has 275 retail locations which require multiple demo units in addition to launch stock. [^1]: https://www.ft.com/content/b6f06bde-17b0-4886-b465-b561212c96a9 https://www.ft.com/content/b6f06bde-17b0-4886-b465-b561212c9..., https://www.ft.com/content/632b4ffa-3637-4972-a525-0ddbcd50b463 https://www.ft.com/content/632b4ffa-3637-4972-a525-0ddbcd50b.... Tl;dr: each device needs 2 displays (so 800k displays leads to 400k headsets), the displays are new and complex (which is why they account for 50% of the manufacturing cost of the entire device) which means it's expensive to ramp up production lines for suppliers (who are unsure of demand) _and_ production yields are low.
  - mytailorisrich 3y ago
    It'll be by appointment so they can control the tap, say it is sold out, say there is a waiting list. Create a buzz. Cynically, a case in point is the display: it is so new and advanced that they have problems ramping production! Whether issues are real or not, I am sure that Apple's marketing team knows how to spin everything. They are famous for that and indeed one of the best.
    - georgespencer 3y ago
      > It'll be by appointment so they can control the tap, say it is sold out, say there is a waiting list. Create a buzz. For near enough the last decade, all iPhone launches have been appointment only in-store, and Apple Watch was appointment only in-store for the first 4 months of its life. > Cynically, a case in point is the display: it is so new and advanced that they have problems ramping production! Imagine that at the end of next year, Apple has sold 400,000 devices, and tells us that only supply constraints are preventing them from selling many more. Which is the more plausible explanation: 1. As with nearly all novel/complex technologies when manufactured at large scale, the combined costs of tooling, the complexity and uncertainty of new manufacturing techniques, and the low yields which inevitably follow, have created a supply constraint for Vision Pro. 2. In the face of weak demand for Vision Pro, Apple and its partners choose to collude in a lie to customers and shareholders alike, claiming that Vision Pro is supply constrained when really nobody wants to buy it, thus… achieving… erm… uh… something?
justinhj 3y ago
I think this is true. I'm sure there are practical reasons for a slow rollout, but this kind of exclusive rollout to flagship US stores will lead to a lot of coverage of people lining up get the device. It will generate worldwide demand for a product that many probably don't even know what they will do with it. Very reminiscent of the rollout of Facebook which had an exclusive, Ivy league only presence, that eventually expanded out to everyone and their grandparents. Another thing I just noticed in this release is how the device looks like ski goggles; an item already associated with 'coolness' and extreme sports but also wealth and exclusivity.
georgespencer 3y ago
> my marketing class taught us to look at everything Apple does under the view of the best marketers in the world. I think there's a risk that your marketing class is being taught by folks who have a limited grasp of how trivial the discipline of marketing can be when a company's products -- in Apple's case: iPhone, MacBooks Pro & Air, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch -- rank among the leading products in their categories by nearly any measure, from consumer satisfaction to performance benchmarks. > The marketers told them to go for the 'exclusive club' vibe by doing in-store appointments. "The marketers" told them the same thing for the Apple Watch launch in 2015, and each iPhone launch since 2014 (?). The article suggests that the in-store requirement for Vision Pro stems from the need for multiple components of the device to be tailored to the purchaser's head/face/vision. > Who knows maybe they will go full abercrombie and make sure people who are older than 40 get it slightly later than 20 year old females. It's almost impossible for me to imagine that someone with sufficient interest in marketing to intentionally study it in a class could entertain this idea, even as a joke. It betrays a near total misconception of the discipline of marketing, and Apple's relationship to it.
- hospitalJail 3y ago
  This is some blatant rhetoric. I cannot help but to call this out when I see it. > rank among the leading products in their categories by nearly any measure, from consumer satisfaction to performance benchmarks. When you say it generically like this, it has no meaning. Among? Top 50% You could say this about any company. Its marketing jargon from the best in the world at marketing. This is no different than when they plaster 'Security' and 'Privacy' in their ads, yet have worse security than Android(if we use pegasus and zerodium for security) and have been known to hand over data(PRISM, data in Russian and chinese data centers). It has little to no meaning, but it sounds really positive when you say words like 'rank among' and 'nearly any measure' Let me pull up single and multithreaded bench marks. "Oh not that measure". "Well it was among, top 36.6 percentile".
  - FormerBandmate 3y ago
    Apple utterly destroys every Android manufacturer in Geekbench and it’s competitive in AnTuTu, ahead of everyone for half the year
FormerBandmate 3y ago
Abercrombie blew their brand up by doing that. In today’s world that is an atrocious idea

mytailorisrich 3y ago

I suspect that they don't expect high volumes so rather than giving the impression that the launch is a failure they turn it into an exclusive club product.

georgespencer 3y ago
Supply chain scuttlebutt is that the display technology is so constrained[^1] that Apple expects to only _manufacture_ 400,000 headsets next year. It's possible that this product will flop, but I can't see it being anything other than sold out everywhere for most of 2024. Heck, you can make a reasonable case for there only being 10k-30k SKUs in channel inventory at launch, and Apple has 275 retail locations which require multiple demo units in addition to launch stock. [^1]: https://www.ft.com/content/b6f06bde-17b0-4886-b465-b561212c96a9 https://www.ft.com/content/b6f06bde-17b0-4886-b465-b561212c9..., https://www.ft.com/content/632b4ffa-3637-4972-a525-0ddbcd50b463 https://www.ft.com/content/632b4ffa-3637-4972-a525-0ddbcd50b.... Tl;dr: each device needs 2 displays (so 800k displays leads to 400k headsets), the displays are new and complex (which is why they account for 50% of the manufacturing cost of the entire device) which means it's expensive to ramp up production lines for suppliers (who are unsure of demand) _and_ production yields are low.
- mytailorisrich 3y ago
  It'll be by appointment so they can control the tap, say it is sold out, say there is a waiting list. Create a buzz. Cynically, a case in point is the display: it is so new and advanced that they have problems ramping production! Whether issues are real or not, I am sure that Apple's marketing team knows how to spin everything. They are famous for that and indeed one of the best.
  - georgespencer 3y ago
    > It'll be by appointment so they can control the tap, say it is sold out, say there is a waiting list. Create a buzz. For near enough the last decade, all iPhone launches have been appointment only in-store, and Apple Watch was appointment only in-store for the first 4 months of its life. > Cynically, a case in point is the display: it is so new and advanced that they have problems ramping production! Imagine that at the end of next year, Apple has sold 400,000 devices, and tells us that only supply constraints are preventing them from selling many more. Which is the more plausible explanation: 1. As with nearly all novel/complex technologies when manufactured at large scale, the combined costs of tooling, the complexity and uncertainty of new manufacturing techniques, and the low yields which inevitably follow, have created a supply constraint for Vision Pro. 2. In the face of weak demand for Vision Pro, Apple and its partners choose to collude in a lie to customers and shareholders alike, claiming that Vision Pro is supply constrained when really nobody wants to buy it, thus… achieving… erm… uh… something?

justinhj 3y ago

I think this is true. I'm sure there are practical reasons for a slow rollout, but this kind of exclusive rollout to flagship US stores will lead to a lot of coverage of people lining up get the device. It will generate worldwide demand for a product that many probably don't even know what they will do with it. Very reminiscent of the rollout of Facebook which had an exclusive, Ivy league only presence, that eventually expanded out to everyone and their grandparents. Another thing I just noticed in this release is how the device looks like ski goggles; an item already associated with 'coolness' and extreme sports but also wealth and exclusivity.

georgespencer 3y ago

> my marketing class taught us to look at everything Apple does under the view of the best marketers in the world. I think there's a risk that your marketing class is being taught by folks who have a limited grasp of how trivial the discipline of marketing can be when a company's products -- in Apple's case: iPhone, MacBooks Pro & Air, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch -- rank among the leading products in their categories by nearly any measure, from consumer satisfaction to performance benchmarks. > The marketers told them to go for the 'exclusive club' vibe by doing in-store appointments. "The marketers" told them the same thing for the Apple Watch launch in 2015, and each iPhone launch since 2014 (?). The article suggests that the in-store requirement for Vision Pro stems from the need for multiple components of the device to be tailored to the purchaser's head/face/vision. > Who knows maybe they will go full abercrombie and make sure people who are older than 40 get it slightly later than 20 year old females. It's almost impossible for me to imagine that someone with sufficient interest in marketing to intentionally study it in a class could entertain this idea, even as a joke. It betrays a near total misconception of the discipline of marketing, and Apple's relationship to it.

hospitalJail 3y ago
This is some blatant rhetoric. I cannot help but to call this out when I see it. > rank among the leading products in their categories by nearly any measure, from consumer satisfaction to performance benchmarks. When you say it generically like this, it has no meaning. Among? Top 50% You could say this about any company. Its marketing jargon from the best in the world at marketing. This is no different than when they plaster 'Security' and 'Privacy' in their ads, yet have worse security than Android(if we use pegasus and zerodium for security) and have been known to hand over data(PRISM, data in Russian and chinese data centers). It has little to no meaning, but it sounds really positive when you say words like 'rank among' and 'nearly any measure' Let me pull up single and multithreaded bench marks. "Oh not that measure". "Well it was among, top 36.6 percentile".
- FormerBandmate 3y ago
  Apple utterly destroys every Android manufacturer in Geekbench and it’s competitive in AnTuTu, ahead of everyone for half the year

FormerBandmate 3y ago

Abercrombie blew their brand up by doing that. In today’s world that is an atrocious idea