Apple's first-generation Vision Pro headset may have now ceased production, following reports of reduced demand and production cuts earlier in the year.
In October, The Information's Wayne Ma reported that Apple had abruptly reduced production of the Vision Pro headset ahead of potential plans to stop making the current version of the device completely by the end of 2024. With the year now coming to an end, this means that the device may no longer be in active production.
Citing multiple people "directly involved" in making components for the headset, the report said that the scaling back of production began in the early summer. This indicated that Apple now has a sufficient number of Vision Pro units in its inventory to meet demand for the device's remaining lifespan through to 2025. Historically, it is not unusual for Apple to do this with low-demand products, such as the iPhone 12 mini.
The Vision Pro is widely reported to have seen weak demand due to insufficient content and its high price point. The Information said that Vision Pro suppliers have now produced enough components for between 500,000 to 600,000 headsets. Some factories suspended production of Vision Pro components as early as May based on Apple's weak sales forecasts, and warehouses remain filled with tens of thousands of undelivered parts.
Apple is said to have told Luxshare, a Chinese company that serves as the Vision Pro's assembler, that it would need to wind down production in November. Luxshare was making around 1,000 Vision Pro headsets per day as of October, which was half that being produced at its peak. Apple will apparently still be able to resume Vision Pro production if sales pick up since the production lines are not yet due to be dismantled.
Moreover, Apple has purportedly suspended work on the original second-generation Vision Pro for at least a year to focus on developing a lower-cost headset. Interestingly, Apple told suppliers to prepare to build four million low-cost headsets over the entire lifespan of the future product. This is half the total number of Vision Pros that Apple told suppliers to produce, suggesting that sales expectations are even lower for the cheaper headset.
Weak demand for the Vision Pro has been attributed to its high $3,499 price point and insufficient content ecosystem. Apple CEO Tim Cook described the device as an "early-adopter product," targeting users interested in cutting-edge technology rather than the broader mass market.
Although Apple's work on the second-generation Vision Pro has apparently stalled, there are some indications that the company could release "an incremental update to the product with limited changes to its physical design," such as a chip upgrade, according to The Information. Corroborating this, Kuo and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman have indicated that a more iterative second-generation Vision Pro is in active development, adding the introduction of an M5 chip and Apple Intelligence. Gurman has projected the device could launch between fall 2025 and spring 2026. This updated model is expected to reuse many components from the first-generation Vision Pro to offset the surplus inventory in Apple's supply chain.
