According to industry sources, the local launch is expected to happen around April, with the latest estimate suggesting it might arrive by early May.
According to supply chain chatter from Wall Street News Asia outlets, Chinese distribution should fall only 1-2 months behind initial sales kickoff in the US. That likely positions the futuristic face computer for arrival sometime in Q2 2023.
We know Apple moved aggressively to get Vision Pro approved for mainstream Chinese consumers upon its global unveiling. Swift regulatory greenlights there may enable Asia availability quicker than usual.
And Chatters suggest production pipelines remain on track, supplying headsets to spread the augmented/virtual reality revolution beyond American shores. Tim Cook touted plans for international expansions soon after the flashy January launch.
While specifics may shift, signals point to Vision Pro reaching eager Chinese adopters much faster than typical for brand-new Apple product categories. By May, virtual and real spaces may see Reality Pro experiences spreading across two immense global tech hubs! Exciting times ahead.
According to a recent report, Apple is close to finishing the registration process for its new mixed-reality headset, called Vision Pro, with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China. This is an important step that needs to happen before the device can be sold in the country.
The report says that the availability of Vision Pro will likely be limited when it is first launched in China.
Officially, Apple has said that after the initial launch of the Vision Pro in the US on February 2nd, the headset will come to more countries later this year. However, they haven’t specifically named which countries or given exact dates.
Some insiders at Apple talked to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman and said they expect the international rollout of the Vision Pro to happen not too long after the US release.
The UK and Canada are supposedly two of the first countries outside the US that will be able to buy the Vision Pro sometime this year. After that, Apple hopes to bring the headset to Europe, Asia, Australia, and more countries soon.
Engineers at Apple are working on adapting the Vision Pro for sale in places like France, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea by translating software and adjusting settings.
One Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, thinks Apple will probably start selling the Vision Pro globally before their big developer conference event in June. He reasons that Apple likely wants to share more details about visionOS, the operating system for the headset, with developers around the world at that event.
Over 60% of the companies that make components and parts for the Vision Pro supply chain are based in China, according to DigiTimes. For example, Luxshare is supposedly the exclusive company putting all the parts together to assemble the full Vision Pro unit. And Chinese company Lens Technology is said to be the only supplier making the special glass lenses used on the front of the headset. Other key components like batteries, speakers, and sensors are also coming from Chinese manufacturers.
One catch is that Apple might have to sell the headset under a different name in China. This is because tech company Huawei already owns the “Vision Pro” trademark in that country. Huawei has exclusivity on that name in China from November 2021 through November 2031.
Since Huawei actively uses the Vision Pro branding on products like smart TVs and smart glasses in China, Apple may need to strike a deal to buy the rights if they want to use that same name.
