It’s never easy to watch a big miss. But this one? This one is particularly striking because Apple has all the resources in the world to make it work, and it couldn’t.
In accordance with MacRumorsApple has quietly backed away from the Vision Pro. It is not discontinued – the M5 model is still sitting on the shelves at $ 3,499 – but the internal teams that build it and maintain it are scattered in other projects, and there are currently no plans for the next generation model. For all practical purposes, the Vision Pro test is on ice, possibly forever.
The M5 update that arrived in late 2025 was supposed to be the device’s second chance. Faster chip, better bandwidth, decent display improvements. Instead, it landed with a thump. Consumers weren’t buying — literally — and return rates were reportedly unlike anything Apple had seen for a modern product. When you consider that the device only sold around 600,000 units in its entire life, you start to understand how badly this missed the mark.
The problem wasn’t the chip at all
Here’s an honest truth that Apple probably knew deep down: no silicon upgrade was going to fix what was wrong with the Vision Pro. The weight was atrocious, the price was disjointed, and asking someone to strap a $3,500 computer to their face for an extended period of time — leaving them with a headache and a sore neck — was not going to be common practice, no matter how sharp the display.
Vision Air, a simpler, cheaper alternative reportedly under development, could be a real solution. A fresh start at a friendly price point, unencumbered by the reputation of the original. But that project was shelved last year, too, leaving Apple without a clear path forward in the VR space. Even former Vision Pro executive Mike Rockwell has moved on — now leading Apple’s Siri team, which tells you everything you need to know about where Apple’s internal priorities currently reside.
Where Apple is placing its bets instead
Rather than doubling down on a full-fledged computer, Apple is channeling its power into smart glasses — a more wearable, more socially acceptable feature. The first version will reportedly not even have an integrated display, which is a significant step back in ambition but a very sensible step forward in performance.
It is interesting that the basic technology of Vision Pro cannot simply be installed in glasses – it draws too much power from a small and light device. So Apple is essentially starting from scratch in a new category, leaving behind the $3,499 Vision Pro as an expensive lesson in the gap between what’s technically impressive and what people want to wear on their faces.
Could the Vision Pro name come back one day? Perhaps, if Apple breaks the form that can feel like a punishment. But right now, the headset that was supposed to define spatial computing is headed for a quiet, innocent footnote in Apple’s history.
