Survey: Apple Vision Pro fails to ignite business interest

More than half a year since its launch, Apple’s Vision Pro has attracted only muted interest from businesses. The augmented reality headset holds greater appeal to large firms, however, as well as in particular industry sectors.

That’s according to a recent International Data Corporation (IDC) survey report, which polled 402 US-based IT managers and employees with responsibility for purchasing AR/VR devices.

The survey, conducted in June this year, showed that 35% of the repondents were “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in the device.

 

The level of interest from businesses to date can be described as “mediocre,” according to Lewis Ward, senior research analyst at IDC. “I think Apple has a lot to do on both a software and hardware front before the Vision Pro will become a ‘must have’ device, even at a pilot level, at the typical US business,” Ward said.

The Vision Pro is a new device category for Apple and a work in progress in many ways.

If rumors are to believed, Apple is already working on a cheaper version of the headset aimed at consumers, though this is likely to be at least a year away from release, with a proper follow-up Vision Pro device taking even longer.

Meaningful software improvements may arrive in the interim, Ward said. This could make the headset more attractive to business users.

As part of the VisionOS 2.0 preview release at WWDC this summer, Apple, which has talked up enterprise adoption of the Vision Pro in recent months, announced new developer tools that aim to increase the headset’s utility for certain business use cases. It has also added enterprise-friendly features such as support for mobile device management software since the headset launched to US customers in February.

Vision Pro appeals to finance and healthcare orgs

There were indications that the Vision Pro resonates more with certain types and sizes of business, according to the IDC survey.

Large organizations (over 2,500 employees) showed the highest levels of interest in the device, for example, with 42% “very” or “somewhat” interested. This is likely due to the availability of more resources to try out new technologies such as the Vision Pro, said Ward, alongisde a wider set of potential use cases in comparison with smaller and more focused organizations.

The two industry sectors that displayed the highest levels of interest were healthcare and social assistance (54%), and finance and insurance (52%). A separate survey report from March of this year by electronic health record provider Tebra also highlighted the positive perceptions of the Vision Pro among healthcare professionals.

Ward suggested that organizations in these sectors see potential for the device to solve well-defined problems for certain employees or customers, and may have developed custom software that makes use of the Vision Pro’s strengths.

Manufacturing and retail organizations showed lower interest levels comparatively, below 30%. “This is also an interesting — and, in some ways, counterintuitive — finding, because these are two verticals that have been discussed as being decent fits for Vision Pro,” said Ward.

The IDC survey also indicated that Apple’s entrance into the market has had a “moderately positive” effect on business attitudes towards the use of AR/VR in the workplace more generally.