The Vision Pro headset hasn’t exactly been a great sale for tech giant Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). The high prices certainly haven’t helped, and some suggest that the experience didn’t quite live up to the hype. But perhaps the matter is one of expectations, and Apple is looking to beat that by putting the Vision Pro into wide release. Investors were willing to give it a shot, and sent Apple shares up over 2% in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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While Vision Pro sales in the U.S. have been a bit lackluster, reports suggest that the move to wide release might help it go beyond being a “niche” product. Apple has started training employees on how to demonstrate the device and has even started flying global employees to California for four-day training sessions to learn how to put the device to use. Reports suggest that several countries are seeing their Apple employees get trained therein, including Australia, Japan, and even China.
Sparking Up the Chinese Market
While Apple has a major presence in markets worldwide, China is a particularly big market for the firm. China represents around one in every five Apple devices sold, so drumming up interest for the Vision Pro in China might be a particular win for Apple.
But given that Apple device sales are in decline as Huawei is gaining ground, and the overall Chinese economy is in a bit of a slump right now, this may not be the best time to pin your hopes on a fancy new tech toy to make big sales. In fact, some reports even suggest China may be on the way to a “lost decade” right now, which means the Apple rollout may fall flat.
Is Apple a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AAPL stock based on 19 Buys, 12 Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 9.18% rally in its share price over the past year, the average AAPL price target of $204.39 per share implies 9.37% upside potential.
