Apple Vision Pro slashes manufacturing after weak gross sales. What now for AR/VR?

The new 12 months has barely begun, and already now we have a powerful contender for our annual useless tech record, 2026 version — the Apple Vision Pro.

Not that the iPhone maker’s Augmented Reality (AR) headset has handed on but, precisely. The Apple Vision Pro (beginning at $3,499) has been, to paraphrase Monty Python, just resting manufacturing at its Chinese producer, Luxcorp. That’s in response to analysts at International Data Corp, which estimates Apple solely bought 4,500 headsets worldwide within the vacation quarter of 2025 — new M5 chip model (which is reportedly made in Vietnam) included.

For comparability, that is lower than one-tenth of the half-million Vision Pros analysts say have been bought in its launch 12 months, 2024.

Apple does not get away Vision Pro gross sales figures — however the firm has all however given up on advertising the product, in response to a scathing Financial Times report. Digital advertising for the machine has been slashed by 95 p.c. If you see a banner advert for a Vision Pro within the wilds of the web, you would possibly wish to take a screenshot: You’re taking a look at an more and more endangered beast.

What went mistaken with the Apple Vision Pro?

To be honest to Apple, slumping gross sales are an issue throughout the entire AR/digital actuality house — to not point out the entire U.S. retail house.

Analysts at Counterpoint noticed a 14 percent drop in all AR/VR headset sales within the first half of 2025. The Vision Pro is clearly on the posh finish of the market — Meta’s Quest 3S VR headset lately dropped its value to $250 — and luxurious gadgets are usually the primary to go when shoppers are feeling the pinch of rising costs on requirements equivalent to groceries and healthcare premiums.

Even in case you’re all-in on the thought of hefty AR headsets with battery packs hooked up, you could be sorely tempted to drop half the value tag of the Vision Pro on the brand new Galaxy XR headset ($1,800). As cool because the Vision Pro hands-on experience could also be, no must-have “killer app” has but been recognized for the platform. The iPhone is a vital standing image; the iPad helps you reside your greatest artistic life; your Mac is your workhorse; and the VisionPro … does what, precisely?

From the outset, the corporate has struggled to clarify why we must always desire a Vision Pro (as this weirdly Black Mirror-esque product demo confirmed). So it is sensible to pause these advert {dollars}, at the very least. For these of us who discover the Vision Pro’s EyeSight show eyes creepy, banner advertisements that show the function could make us much less possible to purchase one.

Apple’s AI glasses are the long run.

Disappointing gross sales and paused manufacturing do not imply Apple has no clue what to do on this class. Quite the alternative, in response to one well-sourced Oct. 2025 report — the corporate is already pulling staff away from its cheaper Vision Pro model, and on to a lighter, cheaper mannequin of good glasses that can compete with Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Ban Display and Google’s upcoming Android XR glasses.

That makes far more sense. Despite a particularly cringe Mark Zuckerberg demo fail, the $800 Meta Ray-Bans made for one of many extra buzzworthy product launches of 2025. Early adopters and critics alike have been optimistic, and buyers clamored to buy shares in the company that makes Ray-Bans.

With stay translation, instructions, and voice search, the Meta Ray-Bans fulfilled many guarantees of augmented actuality which were with us all the best way again to Google Glass (which additionally took a very long time to formally die out); in addition they occur to be Ray-Bans and thus do not make you seem like a nerd. (Well, except you are indoors and the cool shades lighten to disclose, sadly, thick frames.)

If there’s any firm that understands the significance of design that appeals to non-nerdy clients, it is Apple. So whereas the cumbersome, expensive, nerdy Vision Pro could also be useless tech strolling, do not depend its maker out but. Apple simply could rebound from this gross sales stoop to shock us with one thing like a Vision Air — light-weight specs that work for far more than 45,000 new clients per quarter.