What's next for the Vision Pro?
Here's a timeline of the Vision Pro:
- June 2023: Apple unveils the product
- February 2024: Apple ships the product
- RUMOR - the hardware will get a bump to the M5 processor in late-2025 to early-2026, with a cheaper "Vision Air" coming in 2027
- NEW RUMOR - The "Vision Air" project is on hold as Apple pivots to smart glasses
Back in March 2024, I wrote that I thought Apple would absolutely have new Vision Pro hardware in 2025 because it's what they've done with every new computer platform they've released since the iPod in 2001. Surely they wouldn't release this one piece of barely-ready-and-way-too-expensive-for-almost-everyone hardware and let it sit for more than 18 months, but here we are, 18 months into the Vision Pro's life, and all we have to look forward to is a spec bump and nothing else. No price drops. No hardware improvements outside of the CPU/GPU. Nothing.
If the Vision Air was planned for 2027 and it's on hold, when are we expecting a new headset of any variety? 2028? 2029??? Are we saying it's very possible that we're looking at 4-5 years at best before getting a meaningfully better headset? As I said on Mastodon, that's a big yikes if true.
If this new rumor is true, then in my opinion it reveals several possibilities:
- Apple badly misread the market and is following Meta down the smart glasses road in a way they didn't plan to. Obviously, you gotta think smart glasses were in the pipeline at Apple already, but if they're moving people off a new headset to work on these, then they think something has changed, and it seems clear to me it's Meta that's moved the needle.
- The Vision Pro isn't the next Mac or iPad, it's the next iPod Hi-Fi. Nice product for some folks, but a one-and-done detour the company didn't need to go down.
- There is new Vision Pro hardware in the works we just don't know about, or maybe the M5 update will come with some more significant updates to things like the screens that will make it feel more significant.
Apple's invested a lot in the Vision Pro and content for it, so I find it hard to believe it's just going to get kicked to the curb, but it's sure not being treated like a hit product that Apple absolutely nailed and is seeing success in the market.
I think I've made it clear over the last year and a half that the Vision Pro is not the product for me, and I consider it a massive financial blunder on my part, but I know people like it and I don't wish poorly on their platform of choice. My friend Tim Chaten loves his, and you can find other die-hards in the /r/visionpro subreddit. For their sake, it would be nice to see some good news come out about the future of this product, but it's not looking great.
