If there was a possibility that more consumers could get their hands on the Apple Vision Pro despite its $3,499, the problem is that not enough units can be supplied to them in a 12-month period. For now, Apple is relying on two display suppliers; LG for the external panels and Sony for the internal ones, and the latter’s maximum annual capacity is less than a million units, which is a problem.

Apple aims to alleviate the supply chain issue by possibly adding Samsung to provide displays for the second-generation AR headset

Currently, The Elec reports that Sony can only mass produce up to 900,000 internal display units for the Apple Vision Pro. For those that do not know, Apple’s latest AR headset uses what is called OLEDoS, or OLED on Silicon. While there are other manufacturers of this display technology that Apple can use, it likely prefers Sony due to the quality of its parts.

Unfortunately, this decision comes at a massive trade-off because having one supply chain partner can not only limit the number of components that can be mass-produced annually, it gives Sony more leverage to charge Apple more for its OLEDoS. According to previous estimates, the 4K microLED panels alone cost $350 for a pair, which is 10 percent of Vision Pro’s retail price in the U.S., so it will definitely take the involvement of more suppliers to bring down that price.

For the Apple Vision Pro, Sony can reportedly only provide 450,000 display sets, and even if the technology giant gets a hold of the entire supply, it is only reported to ship around a measly 150,000 units when the headset officially launches next year. In short, it is not the greatest of starts to a product launch with billions of dollars in investments behind its research and development.

However, Apple will likely mitigate these supply chain issues by adding Samsung to mass-produce OLEDoS for the second-generation model. As it so happens, the company reportedly started work on an Apple Vision Pro successorbefore the first one got announced at WWDC 2023, and a more affordable option is rumored to arrive in 2025. Apple should have added more partners to its supply chain two years from now, as it cannot expect to get traction from this product category by slapping a ludicrously expensive price tag on it.

News Source: The Elec