Report: Apple significantly lowers production expectations for Vision Pro headsets, falling short of previous targets by half.

Apple is forced to significantly reduce the production expectations for Vision Pro?

According to the Financial Times on Monday, two sources close to Apple and LUXSHARE-ICT said that Apple is preparing to cut the production of its first MR headset, Vision Pro, which was released on June 6th this year, to no more than 400,000 units in 2024. Apple initially hoped to achieve a shipment volume of 1 million units in 2024. In addition, two exclusive Chinese suppliers of certain components for Vision Pro stated that Apple only requested them to produce 130,000 to 150,000 units in the first year.

However, a person familiar with the matter from SATEN, the manufacturer of MR production line equipment, stated that they have not received any information regarding Apple's plan to reduce production.

After 7 years of development, Apple's Vision Pro was released last month and is hailed as the most important product since Apple's launch. According to several insiders familiar with the production process, the complexity of the headset's design and the difficulties in production have led to a reduction in the target production volume, and the plan to launch a cheaper version had to be postponed.

Earlier reports stated that the entire screen of Apple's MR headset is a curved glass, consisting of two micro OLED displays (one for each eye) and an outwardly curved "lens". Assembly workers found it difficult to manufacture the device due to the curvature of the display.

Due to its unconventional curved design, ultra-thin and lightweight, this headset is the most complex hardware product ever created by Apple, making it difficult to mass-produce and driving up its expected retail price (priced at $3,500).

Therefore, before the official release of Vision Pro, analysts predicted that Apple's first-year shipment of headsets is expected to be less than 500,000 units.

Last month, Korean media outlet TheElect also reported that Sony, the panel supplier for Apple's Vision Pro, has set the production capacity limit for OLEDoS (silicon-based OLED) at 900,000 units. Since each Vision Pro has two 1.4-inch micro OLEDoS screens, this means that Apple's Vision Pro shipment volume next year may not exceed 450,000 units. **

According to sources cited by TheElect, Sony can supply a maximum of 100,000 to 200,000 OLED panels per quarter. Apple had requested Sony to expand its OLED production capacity, but the request was rejected.

Terushi Shimizu, the head of Sony's semiconductor division, expressed a cautious attitude towards the expansion of the MR headset market during a recent media roundtable. He is unwilling to significantly increase production.

He said:

"We will observe how much the demand for micro OLED displays will increase. But I don't think we will actively produce on the scale of image sensor chips."

Sony is building a new factory for image sensor chips to increase the production capacity for smartphone camera chips.

Analysts believe that due to Apple's downward adjustment of production expectations, the supply chain for head-mounted display devices did not receive much boost from Vision Pro.