Apple could apparently still produce another VR headset in the coming years, but according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the project is on “life support” internally, in large part because a much less awkward product from Meta that can do much of what the Apple Vision Pro can do was just announced last week.
As my colleague James Pero wrote after a hands-on demo, Meta’s upcoming VR Glasses—tentatively scheduled for release next spring—are a “promising” entry in the VR product category. The glasses don’t weigh down your face nearly as much as past headsets. The greatly reduced puck similarly eases the burden on your hip compared to other non-Vision-Pro headsets. The reviews aren’t in, but it’s an intriguingly lightweight device that could revive flagging interest in VR.
In Gurman’s telling, Apple’s follow-up to the Vision Pro—known as N224 inside Apple—is the subject of an internal debate, and may never actually be released. If the plug isn’t pulled, Gurman says it likely wouldn’t be available until roughly the start of the next presidential administration.
If it is released, Gurman says Apple might introduce a puck, which would mean rethinking the Vision Pro’s commitment to having all of its non-battery components integrated into the headset. Some inside Apple are reportedly dead-set against the puck, however.
And as is often the case, Gurman explains his reasoning with some Apple Kremlinology. The Vision Pro team used to be directly under John Ternus, but Ternus is now CEO, and Johny Srouji is now Chief Hardware Officer. That apparently means Apple’s Vision Products Group, the Vision Pro part of Apple, is a layer removed from the CEO, and thus somewhat more isolated.
In a recent interview, when the Vision Pro came up, Ternus’ response did not in any way sound like the product was on the verge of being killed. He said the future was “bright for the Vision Pro, and—for what it’s worth—mentioned that surgeons were into it. Here’s an excerpt:
“You know, Vision Pro, to me, is an amazing device, right, it’s an absolutely amazing device, but I think of it as, like, the early days of computers[…] It is the early days of a long journey, that’s how I feel about Vision Pro.”
Anyway, despite how Ternus feels, and despite the nice medical applications of the Vision Pro, Apple seems pretty committed (in spite of all the privacy concerns) to shifting its focus to a smart glasses product, which will have less computing firepower than the Vision Pro, but also a lot less bulk. When it comes to wearables for your face these days, the key question seems to be, how much can they shrink it?
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