Apple 'has given up' on Vision Pro, report claims — costly price and weight behind purported failure, but the company continues to hire into its Vision Production Group

News
By published

No official reports on the fate of the Vision Pro

Apple Vision Pro (M5, 2025)
(Image credit: Apple)

After failing to reignite interest in the Vision Pro with the release of the M5 model, Macrumors reports that Apple may have just about given up on the product. Initially launched on February 2, 2024, the device failed to garner the popularity typically seen with Apple products, reportedly selling only around 600,000 units. For context, the company sells hundreds of millions of iPhones each year.

At $3,499 and 1.3 pounds, the device's price and weight have been cited as contributing factors to low sales. There were initial reports dating back to 2024 that Apple was winding down production of the Vision Pro. However, the company released an updated version in late October 2025, featuring a faster M5 chip. The chip resulted in a higher 120Hz refresh rate, 10% more rendered pixels, and around.

Latest Videos From

According to Bloomberg journalist and Apple news Mark Gurman, Apple had broken up the Vision Products Group in 2025, splitting it between software and hardware engineering. In an X post yesterday (expand the tweet below), April 29, he claimed that Apple had reassigned much of the Vision Pro software team to Siri, and the hardware team to smart glasses, citing CEO John Ternus’ stance against the Vision Pro as a product.

However, this claim is being met with widespread skepticism, as readers were quick to point out what they believed were contradictory job board posts indicating that Apple was actively recruiting for the Vision Production Group. We can confirm that Apple has indeed posted several of these roles on its official job board over the past few months.

On the other hand, the job posts do not explicitly confirm the continued development of the Vision Pro. One of the posts read as follows: “Originally developed to help VisionOS achieve its critical motion-to-photon latency targets—providing users with a seamless, realistic experience through Vision Pro—our technology is now expanding to iOS and macOS.”

The mixed reports surrounding the Vision Pro have left consumers wondering exactly what is going on, especially as there has been no official report. What’s highly plausible is that the company may be developing smart glasses, a lighter, more streamlined AR offering that is still years away from consumer release.

Google Preferred Source

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

TOPICS
Etiido Uko
Etiido Uko
News Contributor

Etiido Uko is an engineer and technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things gadgets, technology, and engineering.

35 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Silicon Mage
    Only Apple can sell over 2 Billion dollars worth of product and have it be considered a failure.
    Reply
  • JeffreyP55
    Silicon Mage said:
    Only Apple can sell over 2 Billion dollars worth of product and have it be considered a failure.
    Selling 600k units is not up to iPoop's standards of unloading 100's of million iPhones. Sorry 600k folks, gotta go!
    Reply
  • thesyndrome
    This is exactly what I thought would happen as soon as it was announced.

    VR for gaming makes sense as a niche product, but VR for productivity makes very little sense at all. Just as Meta thought VR would overtake online meetings but didn't take into consideration that wearing a bulky and expensive headset doesn't offer any tangible advantage for the purpose of a meeting that can't be done over a Teams/Zoom/Meet call with a significantly cheaper webcam, Apple seemed to think that people were desperate to get rid of keyboards, mice, or touchscreens for something that costs about 100X more.

    To be honest I'm surprised to hear they sold 600K units, but I guess those are the same people who buy every single new iphone, imac, and macbook release, regardless of if there's any actual noticeable improvement over the previous model.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    While its price is definitely high, it did come with the specs to match. The amount of processing prowess and the overall experience, from all I've read and watched in reviews I should say, has been really positive about it for the people that is into these types of devices and experiences.

    For those who bought into the idea and adapted to it, I understand they're proper "enjoyers" of it. My main reference point is SadlyItsBradley with his very detailed experiences on usage and whatnot. I have no friends who bought into it, since all of them, including me, have already bought into Valve's ecosystem with the Index, so had no "need" for this device for our intended uses (games and casual XR).

    It's sad to see this device being sunset, but I can confidently say it definitely left a mark. Good or bad, time will tell, but definitely one for the tech history books.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • abufrejoval
    thesyndrome said:
    This is exactly what I thought would happen as soon as it was announced.

    VR for gaming makes sense as a niche product, but VR for productivity makes very little sense at all. Just as Meta thought VR would overtake online meetings but didn't take into consideration that wearing a bulky and expensive headset doesn't offer any tangible advantage for the purpose of a meeting that can't be done over a Teams/Zoom/Meet call with a significantly cheaper webcam, Apple seemed to think that people were desperate to get rid of keyboards, mice, or touchscreens for something that costs about 100X more.

    To be honest I'm surprised to hear they sold 600K units, but I guess those are the same people who buy every single new iphone, imac, and macbook release, regardless of if there's any actual noticeable improvement over the previous model.
    Same here, which had me wonder how much I could have asked for that good advice...

    Unfortunately they might have just sold more iPhones seemingly going along with the newest fad without a clear vision of how to turn that into value...

    And that has me think, that they might have done the same with the Apple Car and Apple AI: playing along, even if they never believed they could develop a competitive offer!

    The Fruity Cult after all sells illusions or even delusions ("the next big thing"), so in that vein any lack of enthusiasm for the newest fad (or downright opposition) wouldn't do: they just have to look interested and part of the party, no matter what!
    Reply
  • ekio
    Nothing prevents them from making an improved V2!!
    But they prefer to keep selling the crappy v1 with its dated specs/crazy price forever and moan people don’t buy it enough….
    Reply
  • usertests
    The high price and "Pro" moniker of the original showed that Apple wasn't treating it like a mass market device. But they apparently went too far and didn't attract enough developer attention for an unestablished product category. Developers would like to pay a low price too, but compromising the hardware specs could make it a pain to wear/use.

    So the solution is to try again, ideally with a cheaper but just as capable device, benefited by years of technological progress. Or quit. Waiting too long to decide could be a problem.

    he claimed that Apple had reassigned much of the Vision Pro software team to Siri, and the hardware team to smart glasses, citing CEO John Ternus’ stance against the Vision Pro as a product
    Subtle but last time I checked rumor had it the "smart glasses" were more AR focused and lightweight, so I suppose it's different.

    I think if you want VR to take off, you have to shrink it at all costs (to the company, not the consumer).
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    Silicon Mage said:
    Only Apple can sell over 2 Billion dollars worth of product and have it be considered a failure.
    i mean given its apple the R&D cost more than that so it likely cost em $ in end so yeah its a failure.
    Reply
  • Roland Of Gilead
    Far too niche in an already niche market. Cost is too much, and when compared to lets say a Quest 3, gives no real discernible difference in enjoying VR gaming. For other things like AR and work or VR meetings, there just isn't enough take up, as highlighted above when Teams or whatever can do a better job.
    Reply
  • Rand0m_Guy
    If you build it, they will come... no they wont. No one builds a billion$ baseball stadium unless they already have a team to play in said stadium and an audience to watch. This is, and all VR, is example of just that, a hardware platform ($billion$ stadium) and no/little content or audience to use the product.

    I personally, other than a few minutes of enjoyment and to say "look at me", cant find any use for VR in my life. Its a toy, a video game system with no games.
    Reply