Apple Vision Pro may get an M5 upgrade in 2025, but the expected lower-price headset has been delayed, and may offload processing to the iPhone to cut costs.
Ming-Chi Kuo says that production of an all-new version of the Apple Vision Pro has been pushed back to "beyond 2027." He claims that the current existing model will be replaced with an identical one upgraded to an M5 processor in 2025.
As I understand it, production of the cheaper Vision Pro has been delayed beyond 2027 for a while now. This means Apple's only new head-mounted display device in 2025 will be the Vision Pro with an upgraded M5 processor.
— (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) November 3, 2024
I think what really drove Apple to delay the cheaper
He says that Apple has chosen to delay a rumored less-expensive Apple Vision Pro due to reasoning that "simply reducing the price wouldn't help create successful use cases." Apple has also struggled with attracting rapid development of apps and experiences for the headset.
Kuo likened the thinking at Apple to the company's experience with the HomePod line. "Even after launching the cheaper HomePod mini, Apple's smart speakers failed to become mainstream products," he said.
Kuo does not say whether this news comes from his industry sources, or is once again solely his extrapolation from his experience covering Apple.
However, his projection about plans being revamped for the lower cost Apple Vision Pro is backed up by a Bloomberg report. That report claims that Apple is "seriously considering" developing a cheaper "Apple Vision" headset that offloads most if not all of the computing duties to the user's iPhone. Such a device might look more like existing AR smart glasses.
12 Comments
I agree with this 100% "simply reducing the price wouldn't help create successful use cases."
If they release a less expensive version the only thing that will happen is that people will complain how cheap it is and how it needs this and that and in reality what they will really be describing the current version.
Apple needs to focus on AR not VR.
The only thing that will make VR mainstream is if the headset disappears, i.e. is light weight, comfortable and users don't notice that they are wearing them.
If you happen to follow the upheaval in the car industry - several excellent videos on YouTube - the paradigm shift will validate the Apple Car. The Chinese car manufacturers realised some few years back that the future of the automobile is not the anachronistic ICE engine and tailpipe emission but the battery driven vehicle managed by software. That's the future and it is happening right now. So much so that the world's no. 2 car manufacturer VW - nine brands - will be closing three plants across Germany and laying off ½ million workers. Why? Because they dragged their feet transitioning from the ICE model to the BEV.
Which is exactly what Apple was working on when they scrapped the Apple car project in favour of this pointless device that nobody wants called the Vision Pro.
In less than five years time Apple historians will look back at 2023/2024 and point to Apple's greatest mistake: scrapping the Apple car project.
It should have been called the Apple Software Driven Vehicle. With Apple's second to none software skills it would have easily catapulted Apple to a $6 trillion company on the back of supplying the Apple SDV to millions of cars worldwide.
Also, in less than 5 years China will upend the car industry to become the world's no. 1 car manufacturer. The only reason that Toyota is still no. 1 is because it has the hybrid market. Which for now is viable. As soon as the BEV charging infrastructure matures motorists the world over will switch to Chinese BEV cars. Toyota has absolutely nothing viable in this market. And neither do the Germans.
This is the same paradigm shift that upended Kodak when they missed the Digital Camera Market and Nokia missed the Smartphone shift. Where are Kodak and Nokia now? Good question.
Apple got skittish and missed the boat on BEV software for cars. Huge, massive mistake to focus on the ridiculous Vision Pro and pouring more and more resources into iPhones with better cameras. Great. When is that gravy train going to dry up? Soon, very soon.
Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker is now directly linked up to the Chinese car manufacturers supplying them with BEV software management.
Apple could have been the worldwide supplier of software for German, American, Italian and Japanese car manufacturers who collectively manufacture over 20million cars per year. Instead Apple is pushing s**t uphill with Vision Pro.
Dumb. Really dumb.
I'm not sure why anyone here thinks Apple is not trying to make CarPlay standard on most vehicles. It already is for every car with a USB port where the owner has an iPhone.
The company that offers me wireless CarPlay compatibility gets my new-vehicle money, and ISTR a story here about a survey that a really high percentage of car buyers demand at a minimum CarPlay compatibility, at least in the US.