Apple Laid Off Round 100 Employees Working On Vision Pro, But Do not Panic

Apple laid off round 100 workers engaged on Vision Pro, together with “largely shutting down” the spatial gaming workforce and downsizing the immersive video workforce, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported.

Gurman reported the layoffs in a sequence of two experiences close to the top of August. In the second report, he mentioned the layoffs additionally affected some individuals engaged on headset safety, spatial audio engineering, spatial Siri integration, and visionOS itself.

Apple supplied an official assertion to Bloomberg when requested in regards to the layoffs:

“While we will create new roles as part of this change, it will also impact a limited number of existing roles”

“We are grateful to these team members for their contributions, and we are committed to supporting them throughout their transition, including opportunities to apply for other roles at Apple.”

No, Apple Didn’t Cancel The Vision Headset Line Forever – Here’s What’s Happening

Multiple experiences this yr claimed that Apple, and significantly its incoming CEO John Ternus, has canceled the Vision headset line altogether. But that simply isn’t true.

However, this does not imply that Apple is exiting the VR/MR house.

According to Gurman, Apple executives advised workers that Vision Pro headsets and the visionOS working system are not going away.

The shutdown of Apple’s spatial gaming unit, Gurman explains, is because of the truth that the machine is never used for gaming. Vision Pro does have assist for PlayStation VR2 controllers, however the $250 addon hasn’t seen a lot uptake amongst homeowners, and solely a tiny fraction of VR video games can be found natively on visionOS. It’s simply not what individuals use Vision Pro for in observe.

Meanwhile, the discount within the immersive video workforce is said to the acute value of manufacturing every video relative to the variety of Vision Pro homeowners. Each episode can value hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to make, and third-party creators at the moment are leveraging Blackmagic’s immersive digicam and DaVinci Resolve’s assist for the format to construct out a content material ecosystem with out Apple.

visionOS 27 Is A Much Bigger Update Than Apple’s Keynote Suggested

There’s an entire lot extra coming in visionOS 27 than what Apple introduced in its keynote. Read our in depth rundown of all the largest options & enhancements.

Gurman additionally reiterated his declare from his May report that the corporate remains to be engaged on a “slimmer and lighter” headset to succeed Vision Pro that might launch in late 2028. But if the broader headset market, corresponding to Meta’s subsequent headset, hasn’t gained traction by then, the brand new CEO John Ternus is “open” to canceling the machine. Executives beneath Ternus have been making an attempt to persuade him to proceed investing in visionOS, Gurman writes, with a view to the longer-term potential of the platform.

Apple’s major wearable focus stays its upcoming screenless good glasses, meant to tackle Meta Glasses and Ray-Ban Meta subsequent yr.

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I’m again writing on UploadVR once more (for actual this time), and this text is a part of a sequence rounding up what occurred in XR over the summer time.