Did Apple Kill the Vision Pro? Don't Write the Obituary Just Yet

It's no secret that the Vision Pro hasn't been the smashing success that Apple hoped it would become, but even amid reports of production stalls and soft sales, is Apple really pulling the plug on its AR headset plans? That's the scuttlebutt according to a report by MacRumors, which claims Apple has stopped developing future Vision Pro hardware and dispersed the team into other projects, but the report is drawing skepticism on social media.

First, let's address the rumor. The unverified report claims "Apple has all but given up on the Vision Pro" after the company's M5 refresh last October failed to invigorate sales of the AR headset. While the latest iteration is faster and more capable, the Vision Pro remains a pricey option and it's comparatively heavy to boot. So instead of going forward with plans to introduce a Vision Pro 2, Apple is reportedly shifting focus to its smart glasses strategy.

Mark Gurman, an Apple beat reporter and editor of Bloomberg's weekly PowerOn newsletter, added credibility to the rumor by saying on X that "Apple broke up the Vision Products Group" a year ago and reassigned much of the division's software developers to Siri.

He also responded to a snarky comment on X that accused him of having "lost all credibility when you said Vision Pro is cancelled," in reference to an article he wrote six months ago. Gurman pointed out that what he actually is that a "cheaper, lighter model was canceled," not the Vision Pro in its entirety.

All of this raises the question, is the Vision Pro truly dead in the water, or is Apple still developing AR hardware? Further muddying the waters is the fact that Apple CEO Tim Cook announced he is resigning, with Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, stepping into the role.

If you're looking for reasons to believe the Vision Pro still has a future, there are two very big clues. First, Ternus praised the Vision Pro as an "extraordinary product" just days ago in an interview with Tom's Guide.

"I think we’re still very much in the early innings of spatial computing. We are super excited about it. The Vision Pro is an extraordinary product," Ternus said. "As Joz said, it’s like we reached into the future and pulled it into the present. And people are continuing to find exciting new use cases for it. There’s a lot of compelling stuff in enterprise, in medicine, in other things, and that’s going to continue to grow. It’s fun, we’re at the beginning of the journey."

Secondly, as some have pointed out on X in response to the MacRumors article (which has also been community noted), there are multiple active Apple job listings in search of engineers for the Vision Products Group.

Time will tell how the story actually unfolds. For now, however, it's looking more likely that Apple's Vision Pro strategy is shifting rather than dissipating. It's entirely possible that Apple has, as Gurman claims, moved on from releasing a cheaper Vision Pro to compete with Meta's Quest hardware, and instead is focused on the enterprise segment where pricier headsets are met with less resistance.