A new report suggests Apple is halting work on a second-generation Vision Pro and will instead focus on a budget model due in 2025.
According to several sources related to the manufacturing and supply of the next Vision Pro who spoke to The Information, Apple has suspended production on its next high-end headset. Instead, the company will focus on a “more affordable Vision product with fewer features.” Additional sources say the plan was always to have two tiers of the headset, like the iPhone: a standard version and a Pro version.
The standard Vision headset isn’t having a breeze in manufacturing either. Apple is working on making the entry-level Vision about “one-third lighter than the Vision Pro,” which is proving challenging. One of the main complaints of the original $US3,500 Vision Pro is that its nearly one-and-a-half-pound weight sits too heavily on a person’s head.
The Vision Pro’s allure has lost some luster since its February debut. Sales have slowed, and even last week’s WWDC offered little fanfare for the headset compared to the previous year’s big affair. Apple announced it was finally launching the Vision Pro in international regions, including Australia, China, Japan, and several key European markets.
However, even with new customers potentially entering the fold, one of the Vision Pro suppliers “cut production by half” just last month, suggesting Apple is quieting down on the product overall until the next big push.
The upside to the perceived delay is that Apple has time to work on getting developers and other major apps to come to the mixed reality platform. That means a more built-out ecosystem than the work-in-progress that Vision OS has seemed like since its launch.
We make plenty of references to Google’s Graveyard of killed products, but what about the marbled mausoleum of canceled Apple projects? File this one next to Apple’s self-driving car.
But hey, at least we are getting an Apple Vision Pro in Australia.