At $3,500, Vision Pro is undoubtedly expensive, which many are rightfully hoping will be remedied in a prospective follow-up. Now, according to a report from The Information, Apple may be ditching the ‘Pro’ aspect of its next-gen Vision headsets altogether, instead aiming to release a single “more affordable” device in late 2025.

It’s rumored that Apple was slated to release two headsets: an expensive Pro-style device and a cheaper version targeted more squarely at consumers, much like how the company positions iPhone in its lineup today.

Now, citing an employee at a manufacturer that makes key components for the Vision Pro, The Information reports Apple has suspended work on that high-end follow-up due to slowing sales of the $3,500 Vision Pro.

Image courtesy Apple

There may be hope though, at least for anyone without the budget to shell out what amounts to a good used Honda Civic. According sources both involved in the supply chain and in the manufacturing of the headset, the company is “still working on releasing a more affordable Vision product with fewer features before the end of 2025.”

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Granted, it’s important to note that Apple often leaks incorrect information in a bid to nail prospective leakers, so this (and any Apple report for that matter) should be taken with a heaping handful of salt.

This follows Apple’s announcement it was getting set to release Vision Pro outside of the US for the first time, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK.

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Whether it’s “more affordable” or not, there’s a lot Apple can do to appeal to the masses without drastically sacrificing quality. Check out our article on the 6 Things Vision Pro Needs Before It Can Go Mainstream to see how.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • MosBen

    Huh, I called that one nicely.

    • Zantetsu

      Bully for you.

  • Zantetsu

    Don't think you can get a good used Honda Civic for $3,500. Just saying.

  • Pro pushed out for tech improvements and "air" brought forward to compete in XR platform wars- both very good things.

    Quest market proves The Spatial Generation is young and will grow up over the next decade. They will bring XR to the masses by mainstreaming the technology. Price point has to come down to capture adolescents growing up into 18-35 over a 10 year curve. It is their internet moment.

    The Eternal September of spatial comes along with this generation popularizing the medium for everyone to then use.

    These are the Good Ol Days!

  • LET'S EFFING GOOOO!!!
    $999 or thereabouts and I am in like Flynn!!
    [ ]^ )

  • Jeff

    In regards to having "fewer features", I certainly hope this means reduced calibur of specs / parts. While Apple contributes a different perspective and level of experience, the actual feature set is already lacking compared to all the other players to the point it completely forgoes huge category segments. Scale back on the fluff that no one asked for, but it still needs to push much further and concede that their stubborn ommissions were a mistake.

    • ApocalypseShadow

      You mean that they were not pushing VR like gamers wanted them to? Even though they are pushing AR which most expected them to that were in the know?

      • No.
        He means "EyeSight", etc.
        And he's right.

  • xyzs

    Darn, people are not buying a couple Vision Pros per family ??
    We made them almost for free yet !
    10 seconds of work and Tim Cook can buy one, why the rest is not following ?

    • What do you mean:
      "We made them almost for free" ….??

  • ApocalypseShadow

    Something that wasn't going to release isn't releasing. Huge duh. Huge amount of Morton's salt.

    The next headset was always going to be an inexpensive one. Why release a 'second' developers headset? What would be the point of that?

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Rumors said Apple would first try to reduce the high weight, which for many limits how long they can use AVP. Expeded was a lighter AVP refresh in 2025 with similar features and price, still mostly a dev kit, but closer to the ergonomics/usability of a consumer HMD planned for 2026 or later.

      It's not clear whether reports about a high-end follow-up being put on hold refer to this refresh or an upgraded AVP2. The most likely scenario is that Apple will skip the refresh, stick with the current, heavy AVP as the fully featured model, while speeding up development of a consumer version that would also offer low weight, but at a much lower price. There could be a number of reasons for this change.

      For one interest in AVP could be too low mostly due to price, making a similarly priced refresh not feasible. Or they might have learned that many users aren't really bothered by the weight, so a new version focused on reducing it isn't worth the effort. Or maybe they severely over-provisioned compute power on AVP, but now know how much is actually needed, which will let them to switch to cheaper A chips from iPhones earlier than expected. So now focusing on the version that will allow for both lower weight and price at the same time makes more sense than an intermediate high end refresh with much lower sales.

  • Albert Hartman

    could save money by ditching front face display

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      We got AVP BOMs from two Chinese supply chain sources, listing all components and prices. The expensive parts were the microOLEDs for a total of USD 700 and the M2 plus R1 for USD 200+. EyeSight mostly consists of a regular OLED display and lenticular lenses stamped into plastic. One BOM listed the front OLED at USD 30, the Google translation of the other a "Rearview mirror: 13-15 dollars" that probably means "front display".

      So sure, ditching the front display would save money. USD 15-30 plus a few bucks for lenses, cables, extra components, about 0.4%-0.9% of the USD 3500 retail price, or 0.9%-1.9% of the estimated USD 1600 build cost. You'd still have to pay USD 3450, gain very little, but lose a lot while talking to someone else in the room, which Apple assumes will sometimes happen.

      VR users apparently not interested in that keep complaining about EyeSight, either because it adds cost or is useless for their own use case. The high costs are just a myth, and most AVP users actually want an improved version, as the current EyeSight is rather dim/hard to see due to optically splitting the image into multiple perspectives.

  • Till Eulenspiegel

    I don't know if any of you pay attention to Nintendo.

    In their recent announcement – Metroid will be a major launch title for their new console and also for their current system (Switch). Nintendo always use their Zelda games to tie 2 generations ("Twilight Princess" for Gamecube and Wii, "Breath of the Wild" for Wii U and Switch).

    They chose a 3D Metroid game this time, there is a reason why. It's their only first person shooter, it has a HUD like Ironman – perfect for a VR game. Nintendo has briefly experimented with VR (Labo toy kits) a few years ago. It is very likely that their new console will have a VR headset as an accessory. A Metroid game will be a killer game for VR. Everything they do is calculated, they don't chose this game for no reason. The gimmick for their new console this time is : VR.

  • Till Eulenspiegel

    I don't know if any of you pay attention to Nintendo.

    In their recent announcement – Metroid will be a major launch title for their new console and also for their current system (Switch). Nintendo always use their Zelda games to tie 2 generations ("Twilight Princess" for Gamecube and Wii, "Breath of the Wild" for Wii U and Switch).

    They chose a 3D Metroid game this time, there is a reason why. It's their only first person shooter, it has a HUD like Ironman – perfect for a VR game. Nintendo has briefly experimented with VR (Labo toy kits) a few years ago. It is very likely that their new console will have a VR headset as an accessory. A Metroid game will be a killer game for VR. Everything they do is calculated, they don't chose this game for no reason. The gimmick for their new console this time is : VR.

    The New Switch is using a custom Nvidia T239, it has DLSS 3.5, Ray Tracing and more than enough power to run VR games while running on battery. The VR headset can be tethered to the Switch unit like Apple Vision Pro's battery.

  • Oh what a pity, I wanted a more expensive one actually