I did the factor. I awoke yesterday morning to the “Apple alarm,” flipped open my laptop computer, went on Apple.com, and spammed Refresh till just a little “Pre-order” button appeared in entrance of me. The remaining was historical past, together with $4,000 from my checking account that, I might wish to consider, was properly spent. However one thing felt completely different.
See, if there’s one factor I’ve realized from pre-ordering Apple merchandise over the previous decade, it is that they by no means go as deliberate. Whether or not it is a colour or storage possibility operating out of inventory, the web site being down, or a fault of my very own, shopping for the newest iPhone or MacBook has all the time felt extra like a journey than, properly, shopping for one thing on-line.
However with pre-ordering the Imaginative and prescient Professional that morning, all the pieces simply got here and went, from the Mild Seal becoming course of to configuring the storage measurement to setting an appointment time for selecting up the headset. Here is the complete timeline.
7:55 am ET – It was beforehand reported that an Apple machine with Face ID can be required to order the Imaginative and prescient Professional, so I had my iPhone charged and prepared.
8:00 am – The “Pre-order” button did not seem on the dot, however just a few refreshes later, and I used to be within the shopping for portal for the Imaginative and prescient Professional. First step: Measuring my face for the Mild Seal and headbands. A QR code appeared on the display, prompting me to scan it with my Face ID-supported machine. I wasn’t required to make use of an iPhone or iPad that was linked to my iCloud, so it is secure to imagine that if one had been to purchase the Imaginative and prescient Professional in particular person from the Apple Retailer, an affiliate would have a tool in hand for this step.
8:02 am – Like setting a Face ID lock in your iPhone or iPad, I moved my head in a round movement — proper, up, left, down — till all sides had been marked as correctly scanned. I did this twice.
8:03 am – Subsequent up, choosing my Zeiss Optical Inserts. I’ve used an identical (if not the identical) pair with my Meta Quest 3 and the headset expertise grew to become way more snug, so I used to be glad to see it out there for the Imaginative and prescient Professional. When you do not put on glasses or contacts and have not had surgical procedure that resulted in monovision, you will not be required to buy the extra accent. For these like me who put on glasses or contacts, a questionnaire will seem to assist determine for those who want readers or prescription lenses. Observe that you do not have to add your prescriptions at this level. That is executed after you make the acquisition, which saved me a number of time.
8:05 am – For storage measurement, I went with the 512GB possibility ($200 further), understanding how a lot reminiscence spatial movies and immersive purposes can take — and never understanding what different use instances I might have for the headset.
8:06 am – As somebody who lives their client life dangerously, I selected to not decide into the $499 AppleCare+ plan.
8:07 am – I sometimes have my Apple merchandise delivered to keep away from the lengthy pick-up strains, however for one thing as helpful and probably fragile because the Imaginative and prescient Professional, I made a decision to retrieve the machine by hand this time. Surprisingly, my nearest Apple Shops had loads of flexibility with appointments, so I picked the earliest time out there on Friday, February 2nd, and made the acquisition.
So, was it a scarcity of demand, or did Apple gird its internet servers for days like this? I might say it was the latter as a result of, on the time of this writing, Imaginative and prescient Professional supply estimates proceed to be pushed again, and again, and again. The massive takeaway was that for the primary time in a very long time, pre-ordering an Apple product — one as sophisticated because the Imaginative and prescient Professional — felt much less cumbersome than it ought to’ve been, and I am positive it’s going to get even higher with time, with this product and plenty of others from the Cupertino firm.
