Vision Pro report: No discontinuation, but little work left at Apple?

Apple's VR headset considered a flop: Due to price and design, less than a million units were allegedly sold. Several future scenarios exist.

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Vision Pro usage

Vision Pro usage: Project (almost) buried?

(Image: Apple)

3 min. read

What's next for the Vision Pro? After Apple last year – and to many observers' surprise – upgraded its headset to the M5 processor, the scene is wondering if a third variant will appear in the foreseeable future. Apple has so far changed (almost) nothing about the widely disliked design (too heavy, battery pack hangs on a cable) and the price, only a slightly better head strap is included. A new report now states that Apple has internally reduced resources for further Vision models.

As Macrumors writes, citing informed sources, Apple has “all but given up” on the device after the M5 model failed to reignite interest. Apparently, work on the Vision Pro has been discontinued, and the Vision Pro team itself has been split up among other teams, according to the report. For example, Mike Rockwell, considered one of the inventors of the technology, has been responsible for Siri since spring 2025.

Apple actually planned to bring several Vision variants to market. This included a cheaper and a lighter variant (or both). However, there are currently no plans for a new model. Nevertheless, the Vision Pro will not be discontinued; the M5 model remains on sale. Interested parties are, however, still forced to buy at the original price from Apple, as the Vision Pro never made it to retail. Any bargains are only possible on the used market.

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Apple is reportedly continuing to work on smart glasses internally. This was also the original idea: the Vision Pro was intended to be the starting point of an entire “Spatial Computing“ ecosystem. However, Apple will likely first implement smart glasses without a screen in the Meta-Ray-Ban style (with cameras and gesture control), as the necessary display technology for true smart glasses is still too expensive and too heavy. At least the company can continue to use the platform -- visionOS is considered mature.

The idea of overlaying the environment with computer data doesn't seem to have been abandoned by Apple yet. Augmented reality, which Apple promotes as Spatial Computing, could one day replace smartphones. But that day is likely still some time away. Interestingly, competitors like Samsung are continuing to imitate Apple -- Android XR has headset variants similar to the Vision Pro.

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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.