Apple hits pause on high-end Vision Pro

Dropping $3,499 on a headset that strains your neck after thirty minutes was always going to be a tough sell for normal people.

Now, Apple is apparently shifting gears. According to a report from The Information, the company has hit pause on developing a second-generation high-end Vision headset amid slowing sales of the original Vision Pro. Instead, the team is putting its energy into a cheaper model.

Internally codenamed N109, this more affordable headset was originally aimed for release by the end of 2025. But making a budget-friendly version of Apple's most complex hardware is proving harder than expected.

Shedding weight without losing the pixels

The Vision Pro is undeniably impressive, but it suffers from the same issues plaguing the entire VR category: it is heavy, bulky, and wildly expensive.

With N109, Apple is reportedly trying to preserve the device's standout feature—the ultra-high-resolution displays—while stripping out other hardware components to cut costs. The goal is to make the new headset at least one-third lighter than the original.

Apple reportedly wants to price this model similarly to a high-end iPhone. Back in October, Bloomberg reported that Apple was targeting a price tag between $1,500 and $2,500.

However, The Information notes that Apple is struggling to bring production costs down without gutting too many core features. Because of those compromises, the headset might miss its late 2025 launch target.

Apple hasn't abandoned the current hardware either. An international rollout is slated for late June, and visionOS 2 will bring software updates later this fall.

Why it matters

At $3,499, the Vision Pro was essentially a public dev kit masquerading as a luxury gadget. Normal consumers had very little reason to jump in, and holding off for a lighter, cheaper device was always the smartest move.

We think pivoting away from another ultra-premium model is the right call. The Vision platform doesn't need higher fidelity right now; it desperately needs scale. Developers aren't going to build killer spatial apps for a microscopic user base.

That said, even at $1,500 to $2,500, Apple's cheaper headset will still sit far above a $500 Meta Quest. If trimming down the hardware strips away the magic that made the Vision Pro special, Apple risks launching a compromised device that is still too expensive for the mainstream.