Apple Vision Pro launch nears as staff get special training

Apple is making final preparations for the highly anticipated launch of the Vision Pro, the $3,499 mixed-reality headset that it unveiled in June.

As it’s a new product line for the tech giant, a crucial part of the preparations include training Apple Store staff on how to present it and demonstrate it to potential customers.

The seminars for staff are being scheduled now and will begin in January, according to a Bloomberg report on Sunday by Apple tipster Mark Gurman.

According to Gurman, each Apple Store in the U.S. will send “a few” members of staff to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, for two days of training. They’ll then return to their respective Apple Stores and pass on what they learned to their co-workers.

Gurman describes the training as a “high-stakes endeavor,” explaining that the Vision Pro’s setup process “is going to be complex and not something that Apple wants to screw up.”

This is partly because the headset needs to be adjusted for each user for a good fit, and so those all-important first few moments with the device could be pivotal for someone considering whether to spend big bucks on the headset.

Shoppers will be able to order Vision Pro online, but Gurman believes that buyers will be encouraged to pick up their purchase at a store if at all possible, presumably so that they can be given a hands-on demonstration (and therefore the best possible introduction) of the mixed-reality headset.

Apple’s first major new product since the launch of the Apple Watch in 2015 is set begin landing in customers’ hands — or on their heads — in the first quarter of 2024. Earlier reports suggested that Apple wanted to start shipping the Vision Pro in January, but with the company still to offer any word on the matter, and training only beginning next month, February or March now seems increasingly likely.