Apple's Vision Pro launches in Hong Kong, drawing buyers from mainland China, Asia

Apple's Vision Pro mixed-reality headset officially went on sale in Hong Kong on Friday, drawing local customers as well as those from mainland China and other regions, where the device is either more expensive or unavailable.

Buyers who pre-ordered the Vision Pro, which starts at HK$27,999 (US$3,585) in Hong Kong, can pick up the product in stores. Others can buy online or book a demo session and purchase from physical Apple Store locations across the city.

While new iPhones used to draw long queues when they hit the shelves in the city, the costly Vision Pro did not attract a major crowd on Friday morning. In the first hour after opening, the Apple Store on Canton Road in the tourist hub of Tsim Sha Tsui saw only a handful of customers who pre-booked demo sessions or placed pre-orders.

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Apple declined to share the number of Vision Pro pre-orders in Hong Kong.

Shanghai-based blogger Jane and software developer Arwen, a married couple who only gave their first names, said they decided to buy the device in Hong Kong because it costs less compared to prices in mainland China, where the headset launched on the same day.

The 256-gigabyte basic model of the Vision Pro, which sells for US$3,499 in the US, costs 29,999 yuan (US$4,140) on the mainland, around US$555 more than in Hong Kong.

Arwen said he plans to use the Vision Pro to develop art-related virtual-reality apps, because it is lighter and more accurate at motion capture than other headsets he had used, including those from Chinese drone maker DJI and Facebook owner Meta Platforms.

A customer from the Philippines said he came to the city to buy a Vision Pro because the device is not yet available in his home country.

The buyer said he wants to use the device for work, so he can have multiple apps shown together side by side, and for watching films, adding that he hopes video streaming app Netflix will eventually support Vision Pro.

While Netflix has not launched a dedicated app for the Vision Pro, users can still watch its content on a browser.

A mainland Chinese customer picks up a pre-ordered Vision Pro at the Canton Road Apple Store in Hong Kong. Photo: Xinmei Shen alt=A mainland Chinese customer picks up a pre-ordered Vision Pro at the Canton Road Apple Store in Hong Kong. Photo: Xinmei Shen>

The Vision Pro has attracted strong interest from tech enthusiasts in mainland China. In January, some merchants on the locally popular online flea market Xianyu, owned by South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, offered to ship the device from the US at double the official price.

Some domestic merchants in February started to offer the Vision Pro for rent, weeks after the device was released for sale in the US. Rental costs varied from 98 yuan an hour to 1,500 yuan per day.

But high interest may not immediately translate into strong sales, as the Vision Pro's target consumers in China are likely to have already bought outside official channels, according to research firm Counterpoint.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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