In June 2023, Apple announced its first mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro. In February of this year, Apple began shipping the Vision Pro with a hefty price tag of $3500. The high price tag, along with a lack of compelling use cases, has led to poor sales of the Vision Pro. In a recent interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that the Vision Pro is an early-adopter product targeted toward those who want to experience tomorrow"s technology today.
According to research by Appfigures, the development of new apps for Apple Vision Pro has declined significantly since its launch. In September, only 10 new apps were added to the visionOS App Store, compared to the hundreds of apps released in the first two months.
There have been rumors that Apple is also working on a more affordable version of the Vision Pro, potentially to be released in 2025 or 2026. However, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently revealed that Apple will only release an updated Vision Pro with an Apple M5 chip in 2025. He also stated that the release of Apple"s more affordable Vision Pro is delayed beyond 2027.
As I understand it, production of the cheaper Vision Pro has been delayed beyond 2027 for a while now. This means Apple"s only new head-mounted display device in 2025 will be the Vision Pro with an upgraded M5 processor.
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) November 3, 2024
I think what really drove Apple to delay the cheaper…
Bloomberg"s Mark Gurman also mentioned in his latest newsletter that Apple is planning to upgrade the chip inside the Apple Vision Pro. Gurman added that Apple is seriously considering a device that offloads computing components to an iPhone and serves as an accessory for content consumption. The Android ecosystem already has similar products, including Xreal, but they have yet to gain traction due to a suboptimal user experience.
The delay of the more affordable Vision Pro suggests that Apple may be re-evaluating its strategy in the mixed-reality market. It will be interesting to see how the updated Vision Pro and the potential iPhone-connected headset will perform, and if Apple can overcome the challenges it currently faces in this evolving spatial computing landscape.