Apple extends Vision Pro availability to additional countries beyond the U.S.

• The Vision Pro will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K. on Friday.
• In one of Apple's largest stores in London, customers reserved appointments for demos with the Vision Pro on Regent Street.
• Apple's demos provide an opportunity for the company to persuade consumers to spend $3,499 on its headset, despite its higher price compared to other mass-market headsets.

The Vision Pro mixed reality headset will be released in additional countries outside of the U.S. on Friday.

The Vision Pro headset is now available in Australia, and it will be released in Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K. when stores open.

The headset was launched in Asian markets, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore, on June 28.

Apple's Regent Street store in London offers demos for the Vision Pro, a new product with a high price tag.

Apple can use Vision Pro demos to convince people to spend $3,499 on its headset, which is significantly more expensive than other mass-market headsets.

The Vision Pro, a new product category from Apple, is generating excitement among consumers, despite being far from mainstream. Its implementation is also ahead of the competition.

Whether Apple can maintain the initial excitement and turn it into long-term sales remains to be seen, according to Ma.

Given the high price tag and the evolving ecosystem of applications and use cases, it will be challenging, according to Ma's emailed comments.

In the first quarter, maintained its position as the leader in the mixed/virtual reality headset market, while Apple's recent entry pushed it to second place, according to an IDC report published on June 18. ByteDance, Xreal, and HTC were also among the top five.

According to IDC, Meta's Quest 3 and the Vision Pro were effective in educating users and encouraging developers to create mixed reality content that seamlessly blends the digital and physical worlds.

Unfortunately, the high price points have resulted in this.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst at TF International Securities, Apple reportedly reduced its Vision Pro sales expectations for 2024 to approximately 400,000 to 450,000 units, down from earlier projections of 700,000 to 800,000 units. The lower shipment forecast was attributed to declining demand.

Apple is predicted to ship approximately 400,000 units this year, with nearly half of them being sold outside the U.S. This is in comparison to a total market of 7.3 million units. The pace of growth can accelerate if hardware prices decrease and the utility of the applications increases, as stated by Ma.

– CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.