It goes without saying that Apple’s Vision Pro is a premium product designed for early adopters. Sporting a retail price of $3,499, the device is undeniably cost-prohibitive for most consumers. In turn, it’s not exactly shocking that early Vision Pro sales haven’t been through the roof. The Vision Pro is certainly an incredible piece of forward-thinking technology, but to date, it hasn’t ushered in a new wave of computing as many assumed.
Apple, meanwhile, is reportedly working on a more affordable Vision Pro model, but it may not arrive until 2027 at the earliest, according to analyst MIng-Chi Kuo. As we detailed last week, Apple is in no rush to release a cheaper Vision Pro because it’s not convinced that a lower pricepoint in and of itself will help drive an upswing in sales.
“I think what really drove Apple to delay the cheaper Vision Pro is that simply reducing the price wouldn’t help create successful use cases,” Kuo writes. “It’s similar to the HomePod situation—even after launching the cheaper HomePod mini, Apple’s smart speakers failed to become mainstream products.”
So what does this mean for the Vision Pro roadmap? Well, a second-gen Vision Pro — likely at the same pricepoint — is already in the works.
According to Mark Gurman over at Bloomberg, Apple is planning to release a revamped Vision Pro sometime between September 2025 and spring 2026.
A lot can happen over the next 12-18 months, but reliable analysts have relayed that the next-gen Vision Pro will ship with an M5 processor, which would be a nice improvement over the current Vision Pro’s M2 chip.
Gurman writes:
Apple is working on several ideas for its Vision headset line, but at least one version of the second-generation Vision Pro — assuming it’s released — will look almost entirely like the current design. The big changes are internal, including a processor upgrade.
Apple’s latest Vision Pro feature is striking
Meanwhile, the first VisionOS 2.2 beta recently introduced a wide and ultrawide mode to the Mac Virtual Display feature.
Apple’s release notes relay that the new Mac Virtual Display options are akin to “having an expandable, ultrawide screen that wraps around you.” Apple adds that it’s like having 2 4K displays sitting right next to each other, as illustrated in the striking photo below.
While I’m hesitant to call it a killer app or feature that will suddenly cause a discernible sales boost, it does show that Apple is slowly but surely improving the Vision Pro user experience. Hopefully, it’s only a matter of time before we see an explosion in content designed specifically for the Vision Pro.
