Apple would have communicated to at least one supplier of having paused the creation of the next version of Vision Pro to prioritize a more economical model.
This was reported by The Information, citing as sources a person involved in the supply chain and a person involved in the production of the headset.
The Information does not rule out that Apple may resume work on the second generation Vision Pro in the future, but the company’s plans at the moment seem to have taken the “economic” path with conviction, which in any case had already been foreseen. According to The Information, which resurrects rumors that have already appeared over the past few months, Apple originally had a Vision line in mind including multiple models, even with lower performance and prices.
The budget Vision will cost the same as a high-end iPhone
The report states that the economic model of Apple’s headset it should see the light by the end of 2025 and end up on shelves with a price around $1,500.
The indiscretion comes a few days after the announcement, during WWDC, of the arrival of the visionOS 2 operating system this autumn and the expansion of Vision Pro into 8 new markets, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Launched in June 2023, the Vision Pro had so far only had distribution in the United States.
The foldable MacBook could have an 18.8-inch screen and a similar price to the Vision Pro
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According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, close to the dynamics of the Apple supply chain, based on his observations and personal experience “many people buy Vision Pro and stop using it after a few tries. If it’s a common use case, simply creating a downgraded version at a more affordable price won’t solve the problem”.
Analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated that global shipments of AR and VR headsets plummeted 67.4% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. However, over the four-year period 2024-2028 expects annual growth in headset shipments of 43.9%.
For Statista, global headset revenues have been growing steadily since 2018. Global revenue of $40 billion is expected in 2024.
