Apple has reportedly ‘given up’ on the Vision Pro headset and that doesn’t seem like a good thing for VR, generally
Apple has discontinued development of the Vision Pro, its spatial computing headset, marking a significant setback for the VR industry. According to reports, the M5-powered revision of the device has underperformed commercially, prompting Apple to redistribute the Vision Pro team to other divisions within the company.
The discontinuation represents a major withdrawal from the virtual reality market by one of the tech industry’s most influential companies. Apple’s pivot away from the Vision Pro comes as the broader VR industry continues to struggle with adoption challenges and limited consumer demand, particularly in gaming applications.
In response to the Vision Pro’s commercial failure, Apple is shifting its strategic focus toward smart glasses technology. The company plans to develop glasses similar to Ray-Ban Meta’s offerings, initially launching a display-free model before eventually incorporating visual interfaces. This pivot suggests Apple believes augmented or mixed reality glasses hold greater commercial potential than immersive VR headsets.
The news underscores persistent challenges facing the VR market, which has failed to achieve mainstream consumer adoption despite significant industry investment and optimism. With Apple abandoning the Vision Pro, the prospects for VR as a mainstream consumer technology appear increasingly uncertain, particularly for gaming, where early industry expectations were highest.