Kuo: Apple's Vision Pro Successors Off the Table as Focus Shifts to Smart Glasses

[MacRumors]

Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus signed off on a major revision of Apple's Vision Pro and smart glasses plans, consolidating Apple's work in the category.

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Ternus nixed plans for a second Vision Pro and a lighter Vision Air. Kuo says there are only two smart glasses products in development, including the AI smart glasses that Apple is creating to rival the Meta Ray-Bans and a display-equipped set of AR smart glasses.

"I think removing the Vision Pro line was the right call, as Apple shifts resources toward smart glasses with greater mass-market potential," writes Kuo. Kuo says that the Vision products roadmap that he shared in June 2025 is no longer a useful reference because of the major changes that Apple has made to its plans over the last year. Kuo's product timeline originally featured seven products, but now it features just two that are still relevant.

Kuo believes the AI smart glasses will ship in 2027, while the display-equipped augmented reality glasses with "optical waveguides" won't come out until 2029 at the earliest. Optical waveguides pair a micro-display with waveguides that guide the image to the user's eyes. Lenses remain transparent, so the virtual content looks like it's overlaid on the real world view.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman weighed in on Kuo's report and said the Vision Air was discontinued in October 2025, the display glasses meant to pair with a Mac were sunset in January 2025, and AI smart glasses will launch at the end of 2027.

While Kuo does not believe Apple is working on any version of a Vision Pro, Gurman claims Apple has a Vision Pro 2 "in testing" but the category is "on ice." Earlier this week, Gurman also said Apple is working on a cheaper, lighter Vision Pro, but the device is unlikely to launch before late 2028 or 2029.

John Ternus is set to take over as Apple's CEO on September 1, 2026. Current Apple CEO Tim Cook will remain on as Executive Chairman.

Article Link: Kuo: Apple's Vision Pro Successors Off the Table as Focus Shifts to Smart Glasses

 

[now i see it]

Rumor 1:
Vision Pro successor will be lighter and more powerful
Rumor 2:
Vision Pro future versions cancelled.
Rumor 3: (what the heck). Apple is getting into the rocket launch business to compete with Space-X to launch satellite data centers from the moon too (for iCloud photos)
Stay tuned!

 

[TigerNike23]

What they should’ve done the entire time, IMO.

I will buy Apple Smart Glasses.

 

[kuito]

I have no interest in these things.. I can see a lot of professions that could find these helpful though. Annoying

 

[User 6502]

Unsurprising. Vision Pro was one of the worst flops in Apple’s history, and the biggest failure of Tim Cook. It just shows how clueless he was really.

 

[lepetitnicolas]

John doesn't wear glasses but he's smart and he has a professional vision which is not about the Vision Pro.

 

[BGrifter]

What if the Vision Pro was less useful and way creepier?

Brilliant! Perv goggles must be the answer.

 

[jarman92]

Worth noting that Gruber said in April that he heard from multiple Apple employees on the Vision team that this isn’t true.

 

[JPack]

Kind of a, "no-duh" moment. Supply chain guys always distill the truth, no matter how hard it is to accept.

Failure of the M2 model, failure of the M5 model. Fundamentally, mainstream users don't want to be wearing scuba goggles and a hip battery pack. Most people aren't loners and don't want something covering their eyes preventing social interaction. The most important issue is, there's no killer app for Vision Pro. And no, having a big display is not a killer app.

 

[jacquesvfd]

I swear this article comes out every week.

 

[terminator-jq]

Makes total sense and it's honestly what Apple said from the beginning. Vision Pro was just supposed to be a preview of their Spatial computing future. A fully enclosed headset will never gain mass appeal, they always needed to make that jump to AR/XR glasses and now the tech is beginning to take shape with advancements in wave guide displays.

2029 seems like an absolutely reasonable timeline to get dual 4K waveguide displays within (thick) glasses form factor that can run the full version of Vision OS.

 

[Corefile]

I think Apple did the right thing with the Vision Pro by making it as expensive as possible and wringing every dollar possible from the early adopters who threw the $$$ at them. You just knew a set of goggles with a handbag attached was doomed to fail in the market long term.

 

[wigby]

Ming-Chi Kuo can only make guesses on Apple's next moves based upon supply chain rumors. He's creating narratives to support a change in Apple's component purchasing. He will change his narrative as Apple changes their needs many times over the next 1-2 years. This means nothing.

 

[Rogifan]

So who inside Apple wanted the Vision Pro besides Tim Cook?

 

[jz0309]

Ok, we shall see what really happens in the next couple years... I don't see Apple just "dropping everything VPro" related, there is clearly a niche market, a niche way bigger thank XDR displays... time will tell

 

[hieranonymous]

Worth mentioning: Ternus was bearish on Vision Pro from the jump, and was overruled by Cook.

I wonder what the shift to AR glasses will mean for visionOS. I presume some existing functionality will end up getting stripped away or pared down.

 

[goobot]

I think Apple did the right thing with the Vision Pro by making it as expensive as possible and wringing every dollar possible from the early adopters who threw the $$$ at them. You just knew a set of goggles with a handbag attached was doomed to fail in the market long term.

I personally think it’s the opposite, they should have made it as cheap as possible to build an app ecosystem. After all windows phone failed due to being too late to market and not being able to build an app ecosystem because of it.

 

[mattopotamus]

Unsurprising. Vision Pro was one of the worst flops in Apple’s history, and the biggest failure of Tim Cook. It just shows how clueless he was really.

It was basically a project for them. It was never going to take on mass appeal at over $3K.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

All of this is just complete and totalnonsense to anyone who pays attention to how Apple works.
There not being another Vision Pro in the pipeline means absolutely nothing when it’s pretty clear we know there are people still working on it within Apple. They literally just announced new accessibility and software features coming to the Apple Vision Pro this fall a week ago.
The folding iPhone and AI glasses are obviously taking the priority at the moment… because they are expected to be introduced this fall and next fall respectively. The Vision Pro was last updated six months ago, there is obviously not going to be another revision until 2028/2029, long after the folding iPhone and glasses just become regular apple products folded into the lineup and not special projects as they are now.

Anyone remember when the original iPhone launched in 2007? Apple put the tablet project on hold, they delayed Mac OS X Leopard twice, and other than Intel spec bumps the entire Mac line pretty much remained stagnant from the Intel transition in 2006 until the MacBook Air introduction in 2008.
That’s what’s happening now, the folding iPhone and glasses likely will be the big priority over the next 18 to 24 months, and then once those special projects spin down Apple will then likely revisit a Vision Air and a big Vision Pro 2.0 rethink.
Apple has made it pretty clear this is a longtime strategy of theirs, that being spatial computing. The fact that one product is being put on the back burner doesn’t mean anything. The fact that there is no release within the next year or so of a new Vision Pro is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

 

[k1121j]

I never tried the vision pro, i have the Meta ones i absolutely love the idea. Two huge problems id never buy one again
1. Super uncomfortable
2. Not practical for getting any thing done

 

[kcwookie]

Unsurprising. Vision Pro was one of the worst flops in Apple’s history, and the biggest failure of Tim Cook. It just shows how clueless he was really.

But yet I use one every single day. The AVP is replaced my laptop and my iPad.

 

[kcwookie]

I never tried the vision pro, i have the Meta ones i absolutely love the idea. Two huge problems id never buy one again
1. Super uncomfortable
2. Not practical for getting any thing done

Interesting comment. I get stuff done on mine every single day. It is my mobile office. Actually, it is my office.

 

[128KMac]

What they should’ve done the entire time, IMO.

I will buy Apple Smart Glasses.

Exactly. Great technical product but no real market. What will sell is something similar to what Neil Stephenson described in The Fall: Dodge in Hell.
"three high school-aged girls, coffee cups in hand, gaily laughing and talking.
They all had wearables with large, reflective lenses, and so their eyes could not be seen. From the cheekbones down, their faces were exposed. But points and patches of light, projected by lasers in the lower rims of the glasses, were flashing and sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems. Zula wasn't wearing a VEIL ...... the Virtual Epiphantic Identity Lustre."
Later in the novel there was a description of how you could turn off all the gadgetry, exposing your eyes, signaling that you were now engaged in the "real" world, as opposed to the "virtual" or "informatics" world that the glasses could engage you in.

 

[hieranonymous]

It was basically a project for them. It was never going to take on mass appeal at over $3K.

It does feel like Cook wanted to take one big swing during his tenure as CEO. He’s a brilliant logistics guy, but a lot of his product intros (the Watch, the AirPods) have been ambient tech.

People traditionally knock him for not being a visionary, so the symbolism of a product literally called Vision is difficult to ignore.

Project Titan turned into a bit of a boondoggle, and Apple’s AI strategy has been unfocused at best (although ironically that means Apple will be better situated when the bubble inevitably bursts).

Spatial computing was the only big bet left for Cook to make—although I suspect his complex around putting out yet another wearable probably caused him to overshoot. Apple should have put out smart glasses before they put out an immersive headset.

 

[mattopotamus]

It does feel like Cook wanted to take one big swing during his tenure as CEO. He’s a brilliant logistics guy, but a lot of his product intros (the Watch, the AirPods) have been ambient tech.

People traditionally knock him for not being a visionary, so the symbolism of a product literally called Vision is difficult to ignore.

Project Titan turned into a bit of a boondoggle, and Apple’s AI strategy has been unfocused at best (although ironically that means Apple will be better situated when the bubble inevitably bursts).

Spatial computing was the only big bet left for Cook to make—although I suspect his complex around putting out yet another wearable probably caused him to overshoot. Apple should have put out smart glasses before they put out an immersive headset.

It was an odd move to do a headset vs glasses when, even at the launch of the vision pro, glasses were what people actually wanted and were leaning towards.

I always got a laugh at the promos of the person in the vision pro doing work at their standing desk.