Rumor mill: Early reports that Apple was designing an AR headset generated considerable interest, but enthusiasm waned after the company unveiled the Vision Pro with a $3,500 price tag, and it never recovered. Although Apple might release a cheaper model or pivot to AR glasses, the company has reportedly given up on the Vision Pro.
Sources have informed MacRumors that Apple has ceased development of the Vision Pro after last year's upgraded model failed to lift lukewarm sales. Apple reportedly cut production dramatically soon after launching the AR headset in 2024 and sold only a few hundred thousand units in total.
The $3,500 device was never expected to achieve mass-market success, but Apple began scaling back production even before the initial launch. Sales and interest declined within weeks, and the headset has reportedly seen a far higher return rate than any other Apple product.
Criticisms of the Vision Pro primarily center on its weight. Users reported discomfort after wearing the 1.4-pound headset for only one or two hours, and some suffered significant eye strain. Other problems include the lack of physical controls, a virtual keyboard that is too imprecise for productivity tasks, and awkward stares while wearing it in public.
However, one of the biggest issues is likely the lack of a killer app. The Apple Vision Pro offers "immersive" versions of iOS apps, 3D video clips, streaming content, and a few games, but nothing seems to have stood out as a selling point for AR.
Perhaps with a different marketing approach, Apple might have sold the Vision Pro as an enterprise device. At least one successful surgery performed with assistance from the device suggests it could find a place in fields such as healthcare and engineering.
Apple reportedly shipped fewer than 100,000 Vision Pros per month during 2024 and may have shipped only around 600,000 that year. The company stopped production of the original model in late 2024 but refreshed the headset with the M5 processor the following year, introducing higher refresh rates and slightly more pixels.
An Apple Vision Air was expected to debut in 2027 with a significantly lighter frame and a 50% price cut. However, the company's AR developers have pivoted to other projects, possibly including a lineup of AR glasses to compete with Meta.
Meanwhile, Samsung introduced the Galaxy XR headset late last year, essentially an Android Vision Pro, for $1,800.