BEIJING, February 13 (TMTPost)-- Local news media outlet said Apple Inc. may officially launch its mixed reality (MR) headset Vision Pro in the Chinese market months later.
Credit：Apple
Apple Vision Pro will be available in China as soon as April and 「no later than May」, Chinese financial news app Wallstreetcn.com reported, citing sources from the supply chain. The report suggested Apple’s official launch in the market was in sight and the device is expected to be in short supply. 「The registration process (for Vison Pro) at the (Chinese) Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is close to complete, while the initial supply will be relatively tight,」 the supply chain sources said.
Apple started pre-orders for Vision Pro on January 19 and the availability began on February 2 at all U.S. Apple Stores locations and the U.S. Apple Store online on February 2. The company has said the device will come to broader markets later in this year, though it hasn’t announced which countries are in the pipeline and the relevant timetable of rollout. Starting at US$3,499.00, Vision Pro is the most advanced blend of MR in a standalone device. Apple CEO Tim Cook touted it as 「the most advanced consumer electronics device ever created」 and said 「its revolutionary and magical user interface will redefine how we connect, create, and explore.」 During his visit to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York when Vision Pro went on sale on February 2, Cook replied a simply 「soon」 to a question about when the device will be available in China.
Bloomberg reported last month that the launch of Vision Pro in international markets will not actually be that much later than its release in the United States. China, the U.K. and Canada are the next batch of markets where Apple considered to release the headset. Previous reports said Apple may face trademark fight over the name of Vision Pro in China since Huawei Technologies Ltd has registered a trademark of Vision Pro in May 2019, four years before the unveiling of Apple’s product. The exclusive right of the trademark is up to ten years, from November 28, 2021 to November 27, 2031. The trademark is under the International classification 9 and covers a variety of goods and services such as LCD TVs, head-mounted virtual reality devices, radio equipment, which means that Apple’s use of the name 「Vision Pro」 in China may be suspected of infringing Huawei’s trademark rights.
Unlike the low proportion at the components of iPhone lineup, suppliers in China accounted for around 60% of the Vision Pro supply chain, Chinese digital news media outlet Jiemian learned from key figures at various companies of the consumer electronics supply chain late November. The media cited these industry insiders that the hardware cost of Apple Vision Pro is about US$1,700.00, and about US$250.00 to US$300.00 out of the unit cost comes from Guangdong Lingyi iTECH Manufacturing Co., Ltd, which exclusively supplies Vision Pro’s cooling modules, headbands, eye masks, and nose pads to Apple. As another major supplier second to Lingyi iTECh, Luxshare Precision, an exclusive assembler of the MR device, marked up the value of US$150.00 to US$200.00 of the unit device. Apple was reported initially stock up about 400,000 units of Vision Pro, and target annual sales volume of 1 million units this year, and annual sales of 10 millions in the third year since launch. In the second half of 2023, Lingyi iTECH has hired thousands of people in its factory in Dongguan, an industrial city in Southern China’s Guangdong province, and prepared dozens of production lines to speed up production of the MR headset, according to the report.
