[seviu]

I keep on hearing it’s a flop, but where I live, Switzerland, they don’t sell it. So I can’t really say.

And I am not even talking about the badly taken product decisions for such a great headset but… how can they get devs onboarded for an app ecosystem for a device that can only be bought in a handful of countries?

Clearly Apple sold it and did their best so that it fails.

[asadotzler]

It's been 2.5 years and Apple still hasn't sold out of its test run of 500k units. About 350k of those sold in year 1, about 50k sold in year two, and less than 20K so far in year 3. Workers at Apple's flagship retail stores are saying they haven't sold one in recent memories. The tables displaying them are disappearing from stores. Roadmaps for all future goggles have been shelved. It's a flop and Apple knows it.

[nullishdomain]

> It's been 2.5 years and Apple still hasn't sold out of its test run of 500k units.

I don't know why you would post something that is clearly not true? They released an upgraded version, sporting an M5, October 2025. They do not sell the original M2 version anymore.

[socalgal2]

The only thing you need to see is how many Apple employees use them. Answer, almost none

If it was amazing as a display for work then most Apple employees would be using them at work. It's not, so they aren't

If it was amazing as a movie viewer most Apple employees would be watching movies on them. It's not, so they aren't

repeat for any other use case.

Compare to iPhone/iPad/Mac, every Apple employee uses them. Probably included in that Airpods, Homepods, AppleTV, Apple Watch.

[mercutio2]

Have you gone around and surveyed Apple corporate employees to gather this insight? I’m amazed that your manager didn’t get a call from Apple security, if so.

They weren't handing out dev fused AVPs in sufficient number for anyone to do this when I left. And Apple software developers rarely buy their own hardware, why would you, when you get most of the hardware for free (and dev fused)?

It is true that buying one for use as an extra monitor was pretty niche at Apple Park. And it’s also true that everyone is crammed into shared offices where it would feel anti-social to be wearing one all the time.

So I’m vaguely aligned with you on the utility to the average dev, but your argument for why makes little sense.

FWIW almost none of my direct reports used HomePods, from your list of freely available devices, and grabbing an iPad for anything other than testing was maybe 50/50. And I don’t think you’d claim the iPad isn’t popular.