Apple has effectively abandoned the Vision Pro. According to MacRumors, Apple has stopped work on new Vision Pro hardware and redistributed the team to other projects. The company has no plans to launch a new model.
The device never found an audience. Apple sold around 600,000 Vision Pro units in total across both the original and M5 models, a number that looks particularly stark next to the hundreds of millions of iPhones Apple ships each year. Sources also told MacRumors that Apple received an unusually high percentage of returns, exceeding the return rate of any other modern Apple product.
What Went Wrong
The Vision Pro’s problems were well known before the M5 update, and the refresh did nothing to solve them. At over 1.3 pounds, the headset is uncomfortable to wear for long periods. Users reported headaches, neck strain, and facial marks even during normal sessions, with many wearing the device for less than an hour a day specifically because of physical discomfort. The M5 model introduced a Dual Knit Band to better distribute the weight, but it didn’t change the device’s mass.
Battery life improved slightly, extending sessions to around two and a half hours from roughly two on the original. For a device positioned as a spatial computer that could replace a work setup, a two-hour session ceiling isn’t a compelling pitch.
The price never moved. The M5 Vision Pro launched at the same $3,499 as the original. The M5 chip brought a 120Hz refresh rate, around 10 percent more rendered pixels, and the better band, but nothing that changed the math for most potential buyers.
That hardware problem compounded into a software problem. With the installed base too small to attract serious developer investment, the content library stayed thin. Developers had no reason to build native visionOS experiences without a large user base, and consumers had no reason to buy without compelling software. The M5 refresh didn’t change either side of that equation.
What Comes Next
The Vision Pro hardware team has been reassigned across Apple. Some former members are now working on Siri, which tracks given that Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell has been leading the Siri team since March 2025.
A cheaper, lighter “Vision Air” had been in development as a potential path forward, but that project was shelved last year. Apple’s current focus for augmented reality is smart glasses, with a first version expected to be closer to Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, AI-enabled with no integrated display, than to the immersive visionOS experience of the Vision Pro.
Apple has not officially discontinued the Vision Pro. The M5 model remains on sale at $3,499, and visionOS will continue to be supported. But with no new hardware in development and the team moved on, the product line appears to be at a standstill.
Tim Cook called the Vision Pro “the most advanced consumer electronics product ever created” at its launch in 2023. Three years later, Apple has sold fewer units than a mid-tier iPhone launch weekend.