Are you wondering what happens when you ask normal, middle-class Americans who don’t religiously follow Apple what they think the Vision Pro headset is worth?
Vision Pro enthusiast Justin Ryan posted this short clip, via The Verge, from a recent episode of “The Price is Right,” an American television game show that challenges folks to guess the prices of various products to win cash and prizes.
Contestants were way off, thinking the headset was worth around $1000. The highest bid was just $1,270, which is less than half the headset’s retail price. When host Drew Carey announced the real retail price, contestants couldn’t believe it.
Vision Pro on “The Price is Right”
With the Vision Pro, Apple priced itself out of the mainstream market. To justify the $3500 price, Apple positioned the headset as a sophisticated technology showcase for people who live on the bleeding edge of technology. In reality, the high price is the biggest contributor to the headset’s disappointing sales. Lack of immersive content, coupled with the headset’s bulky appearance, wasn’t helpful either.
This is what happens when the Vision Pro shows up on The Price Is Right. pic.twitter.com/VLvUSITmhx
— Justin Ryan ᯅ (@justinryanio) May 14, 2025
I know this is but a game show; still, it shows the perceived value of the headset by regular people outside of the technology world. If Apple wants to sell AR headsets in volume, it’s going to need a more affordable model, and fast. No sane person is ever going to burn $3500 on an AR headset, and Apple did a poor job justifying the high price. Most of the similar devices in the market are in the $500-$1500.
In Vision Pro’s defense, it’s the most sophisticated headset out there. It was the first headset to utilize micro-OLED panels and sophisticated eye tracking based on the most expensive internal cameras for any headset so far.
Apple could turn things around by releasing a more affordable version. To that end, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has been saying that Apple is working on two headsets to gain more consumer interest. One is apparently a lighter, cheaper Vision Pro. The other one is a high-end model that plugs into a Mac for ultra-low latency enterprise applications, like flight simulators and viewing imaging during surgery.
