It has been seven months since Apple announced its ambitious but expensive "Vision Pro" headset with a vague release date of early 2024. For the original Apple Watch, the company's definition of "early 2015" stretched to the end of April.

However, it is increasingly likely that consumers eager to wear the Vision Pro will not have to wait that long in 2024.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said he expected the headset to arrive by the end of February (a revision of his earlier March prediction), and now analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a similar forecast.

In a post on Medium regarding technology investment trends for 2024, Kuo wrote that the Vision Pro is already in mass production and will enter "mass shipments in the first week of January 2024." In other words, the headset is "likely to hit store shelves in late January or early February based on the current mass shipping schedule."

This year's shipments are expected to be around 500,000 units, Kuo wrote, which confirms a July report that Apple has reduced its original 1 million-unit forecast to a more achievable 400,000 units.

While that still seems optimistic given the high MSRP of $3,500 for a luxury headset in a recession-stricken world, Kuo emphasizes that strong user feedback could change the mood music in Apple's favor: " 'Vision Pro is the next star product in consumer electronics' will help strengthen the market consensus and the stock price of the relevant supply chain."

In addition, Kuo notes other Apple events, including WWDC in June, the iPhone 16 launch in September, and the Q4 Mac media event. The first two seem certain given past schedules, but while the Mac event could take place in Q4, it does not appear to be the only upgrade to the company's computing product line.

After all, the M3 chipset is currently only found in the 24-inch iMac and select MacBook Pros, and one can only imagine that the company will spread the chip to other devices including the Mac Studio, Mac Pro, Mac mini, and MacBook Air as soon as possible One can imagine. With the first OLED iPad Pro said to be coming in the summer, next year's WWDC could be a hardware-packed event.

Looking for an inexpensive VR experience? Check out the new Meta Quest 3.