Has Apple’s Incoming CEO Nixed the Vision Pro?
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There’s been some debate among pundits recently about the ultimate fate of Apple’s Vision Pro, and now Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is wading into the mix with a new report that confirms the full-sized spatial computing headset has been taken off the development table — at least for now.
In April, MacRumors’ Juli Clover reported that Apple had “all but given up on the Vision Pro” following last fall’s modest M5-powered update and its relatively lackluster reception, adding that the team behind it has been disbanded, with members assigned to other projects.
As I said at the time, I remain unconvinced this is the final end of the Vision Pro as a product, but it’s not surprising that Apple needs to clear the runway for more important projects that are likely to be more appealing to everyday consumers than a 1.5-pound headset that costs the same price as a high-end Mac.
According to Kuo, this is precisely what Apple’s CEO-designate, John Ternus, has done. “For now, only two smart glasses products remain visible in the roadmap,” Kuo says in a long-form post on X. That report is a follow-up adjustment to the roadmap he shared around this time last year, when he predicted that as many as seven new “head-mounted” devices were in the pipeline, from the M5 Vision Pro to various forms of smart glasses.
The major overhaul was signed off by Apple’s next CEO, John Ternus. This shift actually happened a while back. I’m just late updating the chart. I think removing the Vision Pro line was the right call, as Apple shifts resources toward smart glasses with greater mass-market potential.
Ming-Chi Kuo
In some ways this isn’t entirely surprising. It’s become fairly obvious to anyone paying attention that Apple really should direct more of its focus toward the smart glasses it’s reportedly working on, which are already said to be encountering delays that could push them into 2027 — all while Meta’s Ray-Bans continue to dominate that market, and Google is on the cusp of its own smart eyewear. Apple isn’t going to sit idly by while its rivals eat its lunch like that.
Other insiders like Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman maintain that “a slimmer and lighter” version of the Vision Pro is still in Apple’s future, but that’s not coming until at least 2028, and will more likely drift into 2029. “Apple needs to fix the design and pricing problems that turned the first Vision Pro into a flop,” Gurman said in this week’s Power On newsletter, “and that category will essentially be on ice until then.”
Kuo’s visibility into Apple’s plans comes from the supply chain, which has presumably gone silent on production orders for anything even vaguely resembling a headset. That doesn’t mean Apple has entirely canned the Vision Pro in its current form — merely that development has gone completely silent. That’s precisely what we’d expect Kuo to see if the company has shoved it onto the back burner. Until Apple can figure out ways to address the Vision Pro’s two biggest limitations — price and weight — there’s not much more it can do beyond bump the chip every couple of years, and the M5 version likely proved that wasn’t worth the effort.
Like Apple’s mythic augmented reality glasses, which we’ve heard rumors of for years, this is likely just a matter of the technology — and the market — catching up to Apple’s vision for spatial computing.
In the meantime, the M5 Vision Pro remains on sale for anyone who wants one — and there’s no sign Apple plans to discontinue it any time soon. If anything, the M5 version may have been released more to keep it current until Apple can figure out what to do with it next. However, the near future belongs not to clunky mixed-reality headsets, but smart glasses and other AI wearables.
[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.]
