Apple launched the Vision Pro less than a year ago. This is its first holiday season. Yet already, there’s a prominent general narrative that the device has flopped. Tim Cook, however, has recently and repeatedly used three key words to defend the Vision Pro’s sales performance.

‘Early adopter product’

Tim Cook knows that everyone expects new Apple products to set instant sales records. But he’s putting Vision Pro in a different category.

In two recent interviews, Cook has said Vision Pro is an ‘early adopter product’.

That’s what he called it back in October to The Wall Street Journal:

• “At $3,500, it’s not a mass-market product,” Cook says. “Right now, it’s an early-adopter product. People who want to have tomorrow’s technology today—that’s who it’s for. Fortunately, there’s enough people who are in that camp that it’s exciting”

Those same talking points came out in today’s new WIRED interview:

• “It’s an early adopter product, for people who want tomorrow’s technology today. Those people are buying it, and the ecosystem is flourishing. The ultimate test for us is the ecosystem.”

Call it spin if you want, but I think this ‘early adopter’ definition is a helpful one for understanding what Apple’s doing with the Vision Pro.

Apple’s trying something it rarely gets to do

Apple is attempting something with Vision Pro that it never gets to do anymore.

Back in its early days, no one expected Apple products to light the world on fire. In many cases, buying an Apple product meant paying a premium for something that may not be fully optimized for the masses.

That’s essentially what the Vision Pro is today. But try to find another ‘early adopter product’ anywhere else in Apple’s recent history.

Apple is vastly different now than it was even a decade ago, and certainly further back. Mostly the company’s wild success has been a good thing, but it also puts unique expectations on every new product, and the Vision Pro has been a recent casualty of that.

Committing to Vision products for the long haul

VR and AR were always going to need an ecosystem built out, and there’s only so much goodwill developers could keep showing ARKit without a real product behind it.

With Vision Pro, Apple gets to build in public as it works toward a stronger ecosystem and eventually a lighter, more user-friendly and budget-conscious product.

We’re not there yet, but that’s okay.

If every new Apple product has to be an immediate hit, that pressure could cripple the company’s creativity. But if Apple gets to ship some early adopter products to accompany its flagship hits (e.g., iPhone), it could be a win for us all.

Source: 9to5mac