We do the research, you get the alpha!
Apple is putting the next generation of its $3,500 Apple Vision Pro headset on the back-burner as it pushes ahead on longstanding plans to release a less expensive version of the current device, according to an exclusive report in The Information.
The report emerges a week after Apple previewed VisionOS 2, the second version of its “spatial computing” operating system, at its annual WWDC 2024 event for app developers. The company also announced that the current headset would become available for sale for the first time in several new countries, including Canada, the UK, China, and Japan.
The Apple Vision Pro went on sale in the U.S. in February, and while it garnered acclaim for its design, high-end specs and specific use cases, its high price was widely cited as a major barrier for consumers.
Other reviewers complained about its weight and difficulty navigating its eye-controlled interface. The reported pullback suggests Apple is addressing price concerns as it pushes further into augmented and virtual reality.
While Apple has not released sales figures, The Information cites a parts supplier in estimating that 460,000 Vision Pros were manufactured as of April, but that orders through August suggest only another 100,000 units in the pipeline—even with its expanded global availability.
In fact, the report said, Apple has been “deprioritizing the successor to the high-end Vision Pro for the past year,” while work on “reducing the cost of the first-generation model’s components” accelerated. Prior reporting by The Information on the more affordable version suggested a price target of about $1,600, or half the cost of the Apple Vision Pro.
Compare that to the $500 price point of Meta's rival Quest 3 headset, which similarly offers mixed reality capabilities, while the more powerful Quest Pro model started at $1,500 when it launched in late 2022.
As Apple has both consumer and “pro” designations for many of its products—MacBook Air versus MacBook Pro, for example—it made sense that a more affordable, non-professional Apple Vision device was coming. But even its arrival has been delayed from the end of this year to possibly sometime in 2026, according to the report.
“Although it’s possible that Apple could resume work on a high-end Vision product down the road, suspending development of the next high-end headset for now could have repercussions for the rest of the AR and virtual reality industry, which views the headset as a litmus test of consumer appetite for a premium device,” wrote Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu.
Apple's shifting priorities with the Apple Vision Pro are among other internal changes emerging this year, including the reported cancellation of its long-rumored Apple Car project in February.
That change was said to allow the tech giant to lean more into the explosive artificial intelligence space—something that was on full display with the “Apple Intelligence” initiative unveiled at WWDC last week.
Edited by Andrew Hayward