The Vision Pro Will Soon Arrive in Canada and the UK
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Apple is preparing to launch its spatial computing headset globally in the coming weeks, and the good news is Canucks and Brits will soon be able to check it out for themselves in Apple Stores in their respective countries.
Although some early 2024 reports suggested an international launch would come before Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman clarified last week that the broader rollout won’t happen until sometime after WWDC.
How long after remains an open question, but it’s likely just around the corner. Unfortunately, two of the most obvious countries were conspicuously missing from Gurman’s original report: Canada and the UK. Gurman listed only Germany, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China. When pressed, he added that he couldn’t “rule out the UK or Canada,” but it didn’t seem he was as confident about those as he was last summer.
However, it seems Gurman has gleaned a bit more information from his sources, adding in a tweet over the weekend that “Canada, UK and Singapore are in as well.”
Adding some extra weight, MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol pointed out that Gurman’s list corresponds to the nine countries the publication’s Aaron Perris found language code for in visionOS 1.1 in March.
This suggests that we’re down to that final list of nine, but nobody seems quite sure when it will arrive in those places or even if it will be released simultaneously or be staggered gradually across some or all of the nine.
It’s a safe bet it’s coming soon, though. All the pieces are lined up for a summer launch, possibly as soon as the days following WWDC. For one thing, the languages were found in visionOS 1.1, which suggests they’ll be needed before visionOS 2.0 arrives. Apple is expected to announce visionOS 2.0 at WWDC, but if it follows the same pattern as iOS and other releases, it won’t be publicly available until at least September.
On the other hand, Gurman’s information stems from training sessions that Apple has been conducting for retail store employees, flying them in from nearly all the listed countries for four-day training sessions so they can learn how to demonstrate the Vision Pro to potential customers.
Canada and the UK aren’t on that list perhaps only because their presence in Cupertino isn’t as noticeable. Apple may have also conducted that training earlier since those countries have likely been the next expected launch markets for some time.
Meanwhile, the Vision Pro has been green-lit to go on sale in that country after receiving approval from China’s Quality Certification Center last week, suggesting the launch there is also imminent.
Apple’s timing for the global Vision Pro rollout may be strategic as much as it is logistical. With WWDC expected to kick off in three weeks, we’ll likely hear Tim Cook and the gang using the Keynote to announce the next phase of its spatial computing headset, with the broader availability highlighted alongside its announcement of the exciting new capabilities coming in visionOS 2.0.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
