You probably remember when Apple unveiled the Vision Pro and the internet lost its mind. A spatial computing headset from Apple, starting at $3,499. People camped outside stores. Tech reviewers called it the future.
But something went quietly wrong, and according to sources familiar with the matter, Apple has essentially shelved the whole project.
Back in October 2025, Apple gave the Vision Pro an M5 chip upgrade. Smoother visuals, a 120Hz refresh rate, about 30 more minutes of battery life, and a redesigned band meant to make the headset easier to wear.
Sounds decent, right? Buyers shrugged. The price never moved from $3,499, and the device still weighed over 1.3 pounds sitting on your face.
A more comfortable strap can only do so much when the fundamental experience still feels like strapping a brick to your forehead.
Apple sold roughly 600,000 Vision Pro units over the product’s entire lifespan. For context, Apple sells that many iPhones before most people finish their morning coffee on launch day.
What makes the situation worse is that an unusually high share of those sales ended in returns, a rate that reportedly dwarfs anything Apple has seen with its modern lineup.
Engineers and designers who spent years building the Vision Pro have been quietly reassigned across the company.
A notable chunk of that talent is now working on Siri, which makes sense given that Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell took over the Siri team in March 2025. The hardware side of the Vision Pro effort has effectively gone dark.
Apple had been exploring a lighter, cheaper headset called Vision Air, but that project was canceled last year.
Right now, the company’s attention has shifted toward smart glasses, conceptually similar to the Ray-Ban Meta frames. The first version won’t have a built-in display at all, just AI features in a wearable form.
One significant obstacle is that the power-hungry technology developed for Vision Pro simply cannot be shrunk down enough to fit into lightweight eyewear without draining a battery in minutes.
Apple hasn’t officially discontinued the M5 Vision Pro and is still selling it. But internally, the story appears to be over for now.
If Apple ever finds a way to deliver a comfortable, affordable headset, the Vision line could come back. At the moment, though, there is nothing in the pipeline.
