Apple and Vision Pro

Predictions: Apple's VisionPro will blow out all expectations. It will sell out its entire first run in short order, and endlessly raise its profile as a blockbuster product as revisions appear. Even at $3500, a price pundits and analysts consider prohibitive.

I'm getting one. Not for status. Not because I'm an early adopter. It's that VisionPro solves three of my most long-standing insoluble problems:

1. Inability to use a decent-sized monitor away from home (I can't write comfortably on laptop screens)...which makes travel feel austere and pulls me to go home. VisionPro will let me write on a 27" - or 75'! - virtual monitor anywhere (headset weight will limit endurance, but even so).

2. Inability to view movies and shows on a decent-sized TV away from home...which makes travel feel austere and pulls me to go home. VisionPro will seat me in a ginormous panoramic movie theater wherever I am. Even at home!

3. I'll finally be able to watch my favorite film in 3-D, which is how it must be watched, without investing in some 2005-era 3-D TV setup. I've been flailing for workarounds, and all are crappy/pricey. VisionPro will be like watching it in a theater. Maybe even better!

I have never bought the pricey v1.0 version of any hardware. But I will buy this in a hot minute. No question. Take my money.

And here's the thing. Since selling my startup to a Fortune 500 company, I've repeatedly found myself locked out of a slew of unaffordable products, services, and experiences. Certainly, more is available to me now than when I was a NYC trombonist making $30,000/year, but I cannot tell you how many times I've had to pass on stuff which tons of normal-seeming people seem easily able to afford (Tesla; business class; heedless AC and heating; renovations just 'cuz; etc.). I always mutter the same questions to myself: "Who are these people? Did they sell, like, two or three startups to Fortune 500 companies? Where do all these people get all this money?"

If I can pay $3500 for VisionPro, loads and loads of people can easily do likewise. If I can afford it, it is not priced out of contention!

There have been rumors about a better cheaper VisionPro slated to launch in 2027. WOW, YOU DON'T SAY?!? I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that an even better even cheaper one will come out in 2028. And the VP4 will put that one to shame in 2029! This is, duh, the way of gadgets, and none of it affects initial launch prospects, because those who miss out will need to wait 3 years for anything remotely like this device, which does things a great many people have long thirsted for. (You too, even if you don't yet realize it. The average person figures this is just another dorky Google Glasses thing. Nyuh-uh. Not at all.)

Apple's stock is down again (it endlessly cycles for no meaningful reason). It may drop further. The press and analysts love to jump on a bandwagon, figuring they'll look prescient by pure momentum (and their glom-on ensures self-fulfilling prophecy). As usual, phalanxes of geniuses piped up to pitch gloom the moment the stock price trembled. Soon it may return to the $160s and we'll enjoy another safe, easy opportunity for another 20% gain as it returns to $200. And Vision Pro, IMO, will take it far above.

That last part, however, is opinion; conjecture; speculation. $200 is closer to a sure thing. Or at least an immensely safe bet on a nearly sure thing.