The unveiling of Vision Pro at Apple's developer conference wasn't by chance.
Apple is tapping into its App Store ecosystem 🎯, which generated $1.1 trillion in sales in 2022. The ecosystem that will help to drive the AR/VR market r/evolution.
💎 The Vision Pro is impressive in its own right. It's the first dual AR/VR headset, a lightweight and innovation-packed .
It promises to augment reality, not replace it, unlike other devices.
But what's outside of the media's attention is the scale and importance of the ecosystem that will support Vision Pro's adoption from day one.
🛠️ The App Store
The App Store has grown >120X since 2008.
Today, it has 2.2 million apps, with ~21% games.
It weekly attracts 650 million visitors, who download apps 747 million times.
It appeal for developers with its arsenal of 40 SDKs and 250,000 APIs and a proven track record of profitability.
Developers have collected an incredible $320 billion from the App Store (total). For comparison, Apple's 2022 revenue was $394 billion.
❔ Will developers buy into an unproven AR/VR product?
With developer billings and sales growing 27-29% YoY, and with $1.1 trillion in sales in 2022 (doubling from $519 billion in 2019), there's a strong incentive for them to bet on Apple's track record.
Furthermore, Apple is pushing to make many popular apps available on Vision Pro at its commercial launch.
⚡️ Critics may recall skepticism surrounding the Apple Watch and AirPods, but now these are incredibly successful businesses.
In 2022 alone:
82 million AirPods were sold, generating ~ $10 billion in revenue
53 million Apple Watches were sold, generating ~ $14-$18 billion in revenue
"Apple has raised the threshold," warns Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap's founder and ex-CEO. "All other VR companies are in deep trouble."
With FT praising Vision Pro's "here and now" approach to AR/VR (link in comments), we ask: Will Vision Pro, paired with the growing power of the App Store, continue Apple's legacy of disrupting markets?