Yesterday was an exciting day. The Vision Pro preorder and release dates have officially been announced via Apple Newsroom. Quoting the press release, “Pre-orders for Apple Vision Pro begin Friday, January 19, at 5 a.m. PST. Apple Vision Pro will be available beginning Friday, February 2, at all U.S. Apple Store locations and the U.S. Apple Store online.”

This is an exciting time for Apple’s most diehard power users. The product is likely to sell out fast due to limited availability of the Sony Optical Displays facilitating the user experience and device interaction. Per TheElec, “Japanese tech giant Sony, which is supplying the panel used by Apple for its new mixed reality device Vision Pro, has a capacity of 900,000 units of these panels per year, TheElec has learned.” Continuing on in the same article, “Sources said Sony’s capacity means Apple will only be able to ship hundreds of thousands of Vision Pro at most next year. At most, the Japanese company can supply between 100,000 to 200,000 units of OLEDoS per quarter.”

So in short if you want one you better set your clocks and reminders app to get you up around 04:30 am PST for the Preorder on January 19 which begins at 05:00 am. Get your coffee and get in line, virtually that is.

Using Apple’s MacBook Air M2 13 inch storage pricing scheme as our basis let’s try to predict what the Vision Pro storage options will be and what the accompaning costs. Should be fun and eye watering.

My original spec prediction for Vision Pro, last year was as follows;

Apple Reality Pro

Minimum Spec

• Chip: A17
• Ram: 8GB
• Storage: 256GB
• Graphics: 6-core GPU
• OS: Reality OS aka rOS
• Shipping Status: Available For Pre-Order This Fall
• Developer Kit Available for Pre-Order Beginning Day of Event
• Estimated Retail Price: $2,500.00

Maximum Spec

• Chip: A17
• Ram: 8GB
• Storage: 512GB
• Graphics: 8-core GPU
• OS: Reality OS aka rOS
• Shipping Status: Available For Pre-Order This Fall
• Developer Kit Available for Pre-Order Beginning Day of Event
• Estimated Retail Price: $3,000.00

See: WWDC 2023 Predictions

Obviously, I got a few specs wrong. But I wasn’t too far off. What I didn’t get wrong was Apple’s slim base storage options. Apple started shipping 256GB of storage on mobile devices in November 2015 with iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st generation) and iPhone 7 in September 2016. MacBook Pro’s have shipped with 200GB and 300GB of storage dating as far back as 2008. If not a bit earlier. MacBook Air appears to have started shipping with 256GB of storage in 2012. Based on specification information via Mactracker.

You can see my full review of my WWDC 2023 predictions here: Reviewed: WWDC 2023 Predictions – One Week Later

That’s along time ago. To be kicking off the age of spatial computing with 256GB as the base storage option is a bit ridiculous and potentially a bit user hostile. My point in short is 256GB of storage surely can’t be enough in 2024 for a computer, I’m sorry wait a “spatial computer” for the entry price of $3,499.99 before tax, AppleCare+, VisionOS specific apps, iCloud subscriptions, Apple One and other add ons. Can it?

For comparison my photo library on the M1 Max MacBook Pro I am typing this article on is at about 800GB and my music library at about 300GB. My internal storage is 4TB and I look forward to one day having an 8TB MacBook Pro. Maybe I am an outlier, but I suspect anyone purchasing a Vision Pro 1st generation is an outlier Apple user. A power user, a developer, someone who wants to embrace the future and develop new workflows around the latest and greatest technology available to them. Maybe I’m wrong, time will tell.

So on to the fun part what might it cost you to upgrade your storage on the soon to be released Vision Pro?

My predictions listed below;

Apple Vision Pro – Storage Pricing

Storage Spec	Estimated Storage Upgrade Cost	Estimated Retail Price
256GB	$0.00	$3,499.00
512GB	$200.00	$3,699.00
1TB	$400.00	$3,899.00
2TB	$800.00	$4,299.00

This doesn’t even include Apple Care + and hardware specific add ons such as the, “ZEISS Optical Inserts — Readers will be available for $99 (U.S.), and ZEISS Optical Inserts — Prescription will be available for $149 (U.S.).”, per the Apple Newsroom release yesterday.

If one were to get the highest spec with the all of the options I would estimate the total cost to be in the ballpark of:

Base Price: $3,499.00
+
2TB Storage Upgrade: $800.00
+
ZEISS Optical Inserts — Readers: $99.00
+
ZEISS Optical Inserts — Prescription: $149.00
+
Apple Care+ Estimate (Based on M2 13 MacBook Air Pricing): Three years of coverage: $199.00
+
Estimated Sales Tax: 9.5% where I live: $450.87

Total Cost Estimated For Vision Pro 2TB Storage With Add Ons:

$5,196.87

At least Apple is including the followings items “free of charge”:

“Apple Vision Pro comes with a Solo Knit Band and Dual Loop Band — giving users two options for the fit that works best for them. Apple Vision Pro also includes a Light Seal, two Light Seal Cushions, an Apple Vision Pro Cover for the front of the device, Polishing Cloth, Battery, USB-C Charge Cable, and USB-C Power Adapter.”

Happy shopping friends. Remember the total estimated cost of $5,196.87 does not account for the potential recurring costs of VisionOS specific app, iCloud, Apple One subscriptions and other possible add ons like extra light seals, head straps, cleaning products etc.

The future of Spatial Computing has begun and it’s off to an expensive start and that’s probably ok. Get ready friends.

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Written on MacBook Pro and iPad Pro using Drafts Pro in Markdown.

Disclosure: Ian LeCheminant is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, he may receive a small commission.