Apple launches its augmented reality glasses, its first major project since 2014

PABLO PARDOCRESPONDENT WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

Updated Thursday, February 1, 2024-21:26

Who has the reason? The British bank Barclays or the American Bank of America? In early January, the former - together with two brokers, Piper Sandler and Reed Atlantic -

lowered the recommendation of Apple

- then the most valuable company in the world - from "hold" to "underweight" and from "buy" to "neutral." . But Bank of America moved it from "neutral" to "buy," justifying its decision with the growth possibilities presented by augmented reality and artificial intelligence.

Today may be the first moment to see who is right, because Apple is putting its Vision Pro virtual reality glasses on sale. Meanwhile, Apple has lost its position as the world's most valuable company to Microsoft, and doubts about its future potential have led the company to leak for the first time some kind of official recognition that it

is working on an electric car

that expects to launch on the market in 2028.

The Vision Pro go on sale, in keeping with Apple tradition, at an exorbitantly high price ($3,499, that is, 3,219 euros) plus taxes, and preceded by excellent reviews. The company also follows its normal strategy with them, since Apple has never created new product categories, but rather improved existing ones.

The iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, HomePod and Earbuds

arrived when there were already plenty of MP3 players, smart phones and watches, tablets, virtual assistants and wireless headphones. That didn't stop them from not only becoming sales leaders, but having such massive success that they created new markets. Now,

almost ten years after its last major launch

- the Earbuds - Apple undertakes its most important project, at least, until the car arrives, on which it has been working for twelve years.

The Apple Vision Pro also meets another Apple rule: they are born condemned to success. Although it does not seem that there will be the kilometer-long queues that formed in the United States at the doors of phone stores (at that time, Apple barely had its own stores) when the iPhone was presented in 2007, the demand is enormous.

Sales already exceed 200,000 units

, according to the specialized press, which means that, before selling a single Vision Pro, Apple has already earned more than everything Meta earns in a quarter with its virtual and augmented reality glasses, despite the fact that

Mark Zuckerberg

's company

has invested $50 billion in that sector in two years. For that reason, even Apple Pro's competitors - Meta, Sony, Samsung, Baidu, etc. - view them favorably. Just as without the success of the iPhone we would not have its cheap version, Android phones,

perhaps the Pro will open the door, once and for all, to the much vaunted and always postponed metaverse.

But that virtual world is slow. Anyone who buys a Vision Pro now will have to wait more than a month to receive them, due to the low manufacturing rate of the product, given that Apple may not have more than 80,000 units ready to sell. In total, annual sales could reach two million units.

The problem for Apple is that selling two million Vision Pros would barely add about

$7 billion to its turnover.

Even if the company's extra income from the million apps available on the device is added to that figure, the total barely represents 2% of the company's turnover. That does not compensate for the stagnation of Apple's flagship product, the iPhone, which reaches 49% of the company's turnover.

For this reason, the market sees the Vision Pro as a true touchstone to check if Apple maintains the competitiveness that has led it to be the most valuable company in the world until Microsoft took its position two weeks ago. The launch of the new product comes just one day after Apple presented its results, and in the same week

in which the value had once again been pushed down by fears of a sustained drop in iPhone sales.

In the coming months we will know if Barclays, Piper Sandler and Reed Atlantic are right and Apple has exhausted its growth potential. Or if Bank of America is the one who got it right and the Vision Pro opens a new cycle for the company.