Previously it was reported that Apple was suspending work on an Apple Vision Pro 2 to work on a less expensive spatial computing headset.
In his latest “Power On” newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says a cheaper device, codenamed N107, is now the focus of Apple’s Vision Products Group. The company hopes to bring that product to market as early as the end of 2025. The problem is reducing the price while retaining critical features. According to Gurman, the tech giant is dealing with some difficult trade-offs:
° Apple could strip out the EyeSight display — the feature that shows a user’s eyes on the outside — and reduce the specifications of the internal virtual reality screens.
° Apple could also could use a less powerful chip and lower the quality of the augmented reality passthrough visuals, which show you the real-world views outside the device.
° Apple is considering making the device reliant on a tethered Mac or iPhone. That would let Apple save money on the processing power and components needed to make the Vision Pro a fully standalone product.
Gurman says Apple also is still working on a second-generation version of the Vision Pro. That model is called the N109 internally. It looks much like the current model but includes a faster processor and improvements to external cameras. Apple has also looked at ways to make the second version lighter and more comfortable.
“The company has no plans to abandon the high end of the headset market, but this second-generation Vision Pro will take longer to arrive. Months ago, the company shifted a planned 2025 release to the end of 2026 at the earliest, as I reported in April,” Gurman writes. “Meanwhile, the company has renewed efforts to develop AR-only glasses. These would be lightweight spectacles that users could easily wear all day, and they’ve long been a holy grail for the tech industry. But it’s still early days. Though a launch date around 2027 has been bandied about, no one I’ve spoken to within Apple believes the glasses will be ready in a few years.”
This info from Gurman is from the free edition of “Power On”. If you like it, consider subscribing to Bloomberg.com—you’ll receive the newsletter earlier and get exclusive access to a Q&A section.
