Gurman: New Apple Vision Pro Won't Arrive for at Least Two Years

[thadoggfather]

Perhaps a Vision Pro specifically, but I could see a more cost effective model coming in next year or two.

$3500 for a new product line that is not a necessity is an absolute deal breaker for a lot of people. Find a way to make it a third of the cost or less, and the intrigue will ramp up rather quick.

 

[Sirious]

I think they just brought it out too early. At the moment its definitely a 'lets test the appetite for this device' kind of device.

Make it cheaper, then watch it fly off shelves........

 

[contacos]

I think there were articles even on here before it's launch that even the internal Apple devs and departments said the device is not ready but Tim wanted to launch it? Now that Tim is retiring from CEO soon, I can imagine this being one of the first victims of restructuring / refocusing

 

[Plutonius]

What happened to Apple's vision 🙂 .

 

[HouseLannister]

The Vision Pro is undoubtedly a future of personal computing

No, it was a stopgap and always was. This is just something Apple was internally messing around with and decided to put out because they had sunk a lot of R&D into it, but no one has thought a VR headset was the future since Oculus (pre-Meta) in 2014 or so. AVP isn't a proof of concept. It is a failure of a product, delivered a decade too late at 6x the price it should have been.

The future everyone wants is AR glasses. Almost none of the work done on AVP is going to get them there either. And AR glasses aren't any closer to becoming a daily accessory like Apple Watch because battery technology just isn't improving. If your glasses don't last 18 hours, it just isn't going to be a thing. And AR glasses won't run visionOS. It needs to be simple and out of sight 95+% of your day. visionOS is going to be dead in 3 years and we will probably not see AR glasses for 10.

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

The idea that Apple had “given up” on the Vision Pro when just a couple of weeks earlier Joz and Ternus said that spatial computing is “inevitable” was always a severe misreading of the situation.

there are better ways to do spatial computing than strapping screens to your face and cutting yourself off from the world

the former does not necessarily imply the other

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

The Vision Pro is undoubtedly a future of personal computing but it’s just not ready yet from a hardware perspective.

it is definitely not the future of personal computing

 

[surferfb]

The Vision Pro launch was simply a big miscalculation. I don't know if it's because Tim Cook is completely out of touch with his real customer base or just wanted to have his iPhone moment or what but it's clear in hindsight and should have been clear to him at the time it just wasn't going to be the retail hit they clearly expected it to be.

There is no universe where Apple expected AVP to be a retail hit. I’m sure they expected it to sell better than it did, but the idea they expected it to be a hit when it’s an entirely new computing platform for most people and it starts at more than the average American’s monthly take home pay is just ludicrous. Tim Cook may be a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. He has a MBA from Duke. He didn’t think it was going to be a mass market retail hit.

This was always a tech enthusiast, early adopter, and developer device. It’s completely fair to criticize Apple for releasing it in that state, but this anti-AVP retconning that “it was meant for the mass market” is just silly.

 

[janwerbinski]

I suspected next model will be delayed. So I'd bought M5 model half yeare ago and I'm very happy with it. Great cinema screen on the go.

 

[CarAnalogy]

There is no universe where Apple expected AVP to be a retail hit. I’m sure they expected it to sell better than it did, but the idea they expected it to be a hit when it’s an entirely new computing platform for most people and it starts at more than the average American’s monthly take home pay is just ludicrous. Tim Cook may be a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. He has a MBA from Duke. He didn’t think it was going to be a mass market retail hit.

This was always a tech enthusiast, early adopter, and developer device. It’s completely fair to criticize Apple for releasing it in that state, but this anti-AVP retconning that “it was meant for the mass market” is just silly.

Yeah, like I said. Successful retcon.

 

[satchmo]

The VisionPro is likely dead in the water.

Some Meta-type glasses is probably around the corner.

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

"Cars are a failure, Ford should cut is losses and focus on horse buggies"
- some random dude in 1904

that's a pretty terrible analogy if for no other reason than 1904 the ford motor company had been in existence for 3 years.

vr headsets have been available for around 40 years

 

[Klagarde]

Apple hasn't fully abandoned the Vision Pro, but anyone hoping for a successor will be waiting at least two more years, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman resisted suggestions that Apple has walked away from the headset entirely. The well-connected reporter says the company continues to develop new technologies and materials behind the scenes with the goal of eventually producing a cheaper, lighter enclosed headset. That said, no such product is apparently in active development, and the long-rumored "Vision Air" was canceled last year.

If a new Vision Pro-style device does materialize, Gurman says he wouldn't expect it for "around two more years at least," given that the bulk of Apple's mixed-reality hardware talent has been pulled onto other projects like lightweight smart glasses.

Indeed, Apple's smart glasses project is now the focus, and former Vision Products Group members have been reassigned to that team, as well as shoring up its Siri chatbot development, not to mention other AI wearables such as the AirPods with cameras and a planned AI pendant.

The Vision Pro's troubled retail launch was recently extensively covered in a book by New York Times labor reporter Noam Scheiber, who argues that Apple's decade-long erosion of its retail workforce directly contributed to the disappointing launch of the $3,499 headset.

Apple refreshed the Vision Pro in October 2025 with an updated model featuring an M5 chip.

Article Link: Gurman: New Apple Vision Pro Won't Arrive for at Least Two Years

It’s a wonderful piece of hardware, I would like to buy it if there is a solid usecase for it. Right now it would be to much of a toy

 

[turbineseaplane]

I’m telling you guys now they’re never gonna do another enclosed VR headset.

There will be other Vision products and other form factors, but what you see as a Vision Pro right now we will not see again.

I am not digging at people that like the AVP, I’m just saying that for a company like Apple, that form factor is not even close to mainstream enough. It’s some amazing technology, but a fatally flawed product in its current form.

 

[surferfb]

Yeah, like I said. Successful retcon.

What on Earth gives you the impression they thought it was going to be a mass market hit? Do you think Apple executives and product managers don't understand product pricing? You think they don't know how many $3500+ Macs they sell? I suspect the actual success metric they were looking at was probably "does this establish us as the platform for spatial computing before Meta does."

I think it's fair to argue that Apple miscalculated the degree of consumer interest, even among early adopters. Apple assumed there was a large enough group of tech-forward, high-income buyers who would pay $3,500+ for a compelling new experience, similar to how early Mac buyers or early iPhone buyers paid a premium. The number of those people turned out to be much smaller than anticipated.

But there is no universe where Apple expected a product like that is expected to be a retail hit. None. Sell better than it did? Absolutely. A hit? Absolutely not.

 

[turbineseaplane]

What on Earth gives you the impression they thought it was going to be a mass market hit? Do you think Apple executives and product managers don't understand product pricing? You think they don't know how many $3500+ Macs they sell? I suspect the actual success metric they were looking at was probably "does this establish us as the platform for spatial computing before Meta does."

I think it's fair to argue that Apple miscalculated the degree of consumer interest, even among early adopters. Apple assumed there was a large enough group of tech-forward, high-income buyers who would pay $3,500+ for a compelling new experience, similar to how early Mac buyers or early iPhone buyers paid a premium. The number of those people turned out to be much smaller than anticipated.

But there is no universe where Apple expected a product like that is expected to be a retail hit. None. Sell better than it did? Absolutely. A hit? Absolutely not.

I love you, but Cook flat out doesn’t do a vanity fair piece if there isn’t some mainstream hope.

 

[EugW]

This never gets old:

 

[HouseLannister]

The idea that Apple had “given up” on the Vision Pro when just a couple of weeks earlier Joz and Ternus said that spatial computing is “inevitable” was always a severe misreading of the situation.

Misreading? Sounds like you are reading between the lines.

He also declined to comment on smart glasses, but said we're in the "early innings of spatial computing," while Ternus said that combining the digital and physical world is an "inevitability."

This could mean that on an infinite timescale we will have neural implants that merge the digital and physical world. They are circumventing the question because they do not want to destroy sales for an existing product, but they are making it very clear that it was a test case and not an endgame. There will be more false starts by Apple and other companies before we get to this inevitable future, but that inevitably could be decades away. And it won’t be visionOS or anything that looks remotely like AVP.

 

[Schizoid]

I remember this product, it was funny!

 

[Rogifan]

I will be surprised if we see another Vision Pro. It will go the way of Meta’s Metaverse.

 

[topmounter]

Take your time Apple, no real or perceived rush whatsoever.

 

[turbineseaplane]

These sorts of hints and comments and quiet actions are what Apple moving off something looks like.

The recent "no more MacPro, buy something else" situation is out of the norm for Apple, who is traditionally very close to the vest with the public.

 

[surferfb]

I love you, but Cook flat out doesn’t do a vanity fair piece if there isn’t some mainstream hope.

Respectfully disagree. I'd argue you're conflating "Cook thought this had some mainstream future potential" (certainly true, eventually, with a cheaper successor) with "Cook thought the $3,500 v1 would be a mainstream hit" (certainly not).

I'd argue a Vanity Fair sit-down is more consistent with "we want the cultural conversation to take this seriously as a technological achievement" than with "we think everyone is going to be looking for one this Christmas." Reasonable people can disagree on this, but I think Vanity Fair's readership (affluent, culturally influential) maps pretty well onto the "early adopter" demographic Apple was (in my opinion) trying to reach. I don't think most soccer moms are reading Vanity Fair. I's a signal to the media Apple is serious about the product; I don't think it's a signal that Apple though it was going mass market.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Respectfully disagree. I'd argue you're conflating "Cook thought this had some mainstream future potential" (certainly true, eventually, with a cheaper successor) with "Cook thought the $3,500 v1 would be a mainstream hit" (certainly not).

I'd argue a Vanity Fair sit-down is more consistent with "we want the cultural conversation to take this seriously as a technological achievement" than with "we think everyone is going to be looking for one this Christmas." Reasonable people can disagree on this, but I think Vanity Fair's readership (affluent, culturally influential) maps pretty well onto the "early adopter" demographic Apple was (in my opinion) trying to reach. I don't think most soccer moms are reading Vanity Fair. I's a signal to the media Apple is serious about the product; I don't think it's a signal that Apple though it was going mass market.

lol
I knew you'd disagree.

I guess we'll see.

I'm sorry, but the early adopter segment is decidedly not the Vanity Fair demographic, but we can disagree about that also.

Finally, if Apple was going to signal they were serious, they should have considered supporting their own product, which they barely supported even from the get go.

Launching an all new platform has almost no chance when one goes about it how Apple did.
I mean, just ask developers! (as you know already I'm sure).

 

[dbwie]

After purchasing the M5 Apple Vision Pro, I wasn’t expecting to buy another one in the next several years, so the lack of active hardware development doesn’t bother me. I hope they throw us a few bones on the software side, however, because it is an investment. It would be nice if it kept up with some developments on the software side, such as AI advancements. I can’t wait for WWDC!