Vision Pro Deliveries Are Backordered Into March But In-store Availability Remains
Within 24 hours of Vision Pro pre-orders starting earlier this month, home delivery dates were pushed back from launch day into March. But curiously, orders for in-store pickups are still available within a week of launch day at many stores.
Home Delivery Dates Delayed
Apple Vision Pro pre-orders opened on January 19th, and many woke up bright and early to get into the pre-order line. Those who were quick to the draw secured a home delivery date of February 2nd—the headset’s official launch date. But it wasn’t long before delivery estimates started to drift.
First it was back into mid-to-late February, then all the way into March. Based on a sampling of Apple stores across the US, home delivery pre-orders are currently expected between March 4–11—more than a month after launch day. This is the case for all three storage sizes of the headset.
In-store Pickup Availability
Despite the delay in home delivery dates, in-store pickup orders for Vision Pro are still relatively easy to find within a few days of launch. Sampling Apple stores in the 10 most populous cities in the US shows that most still have at least some in-store pickup availability.
However, this isn’t the case everywhere. In places like New York City, Philadelphia, and San Jose, the headsets are completely unavailable for pickup at any nearby stores.
The furthest date we’ve seen for in-store pickup availability is February 5th, which suggests that Apple isn’t taking orders for any pickups beyond February 5th. Perhaps that’s because the company can’t guarantee the pickup date until it knows when more headsets will be delivered.
Understanding the Demand
It’s interesting that in-store orders remain even while delivery orders are backordered into March. It may be that Apple guaranteed each store a certain number of headsets, while reserving some portion of its inventory for delivery orders only. But this makes it particularly hard to judge the full scope of demand.
With Vision Pro launch day quickly approaching we’ll soon have a better idea of how many headsets are actually landing in people’s hands, and how long until stock gets substantially refreshed.
