Apple scraps Vision Pro successor, redistributes team after M5 headset weakness
- Apple has reportedly stopped work on a direct Vision Pro follow-up after the October 2025 M5 refresh failed to revive demand, with staff reassigned. - The M5 model kept the $3,499 price, added a faster chip, 120Hz mode, more pixels, and modest battery gains, but sales still lagged. - This extends Apple’s pivot toward lighter AI smart glasses, a shift already underway since late 2025.
Apple’s headset plan looks a lot smaller now. The new wrinkle is not that Vision Pro struggled — that part has been obvious for a while — but that Apple reportedly stopped work on a direct successor after the M5 refresh failed to change the story. The team that had been built around the product has been redistributed, with some of that talent pulled into Siri and other parts of the company. That matters because it suggests Apple is no longer treating the current Vision Pro form factor as the thing to push forward next. (macrumors.com) ### What actually changed? The immediate report says Apple has “all but given up” on a next Vision Pro in the same mold. The company is still selling the current M5 version, but the dedicated group behind the headset has reportedly been broken up and reassigned. Some of those people are now working on Siri — which fits the (macrumors.com)voice-assistant mess. (macrumors.com) ### Why didn’t the M5 refresh help? Because it was mostly a spec bump on top of the same basic problem. Apple updated Vision Pro in October 2025 with an M5 chip and a more comfortable band. The refresh also brought a 120Hz mode, about 10% more rendered pixels, and roughly 30 more minutes of battery life. But the headset sti(macrumors.com)r a device people already saw as impressive but heavy, isolating, and too expensive. (macrumors.com) ### Was Vision Pro really that weak? Commercially, yes — at least by Apple standards. One report pegs total sales at around 600,000 units and says returns were unusually high versus other modern Apple products. Even people defending the platform are basically conceding the core point: the headset did not become a mainstream(macrumors.com)e concept, or wait for better technology. (macrumors.com) ### Does the team breakup mean the platform is dead? Not exactly. The cleaner read is that Apple is normalizing Vision work inside the rest of the company instead of preserving a special standalone unit. Bloomberg had already described the breakup of the Vision Products Group earlier in 2025, with hardware folded back under(macrumors.com)so running Siri. So the platform can keep getting visionOS updates even if a near-term headset sequel is off the table. (bloomberg.com) ### Why are smart glasses winning internally? Because glasses are easier to imagine as an everyday product. Apple had already paused a cheaper, lighter Vision headset in October 2025 to move staff onto Meta-style AI glasses, and Bloomberg later said(bloomberg.com)asses with cameras, microphones, speakers, and AI help, not a floating-display computer for your face. (bloomberg.com) ### Why not just shrink Vision Pro into glasses? That’s the hard part. The displays, sensors, heat, and power demands that make Vision Pro feel magical are also what make it bulky. Apple reportedly still can’t fit that full experience into something light enough to wear like normal glasses. Basically, Vision Pro proved the software ideas. It did not solve the physics. (macrumors.com) ### What’s the bottom line? Apple is not abandoning face computers altogether. But it does seem to be abandoning the idea that a $3,499 headset like Vision Pro is the bridge to the mainstream. For now, the company’s XR roadmap looks less like “Vision Pro 2 soon” and more like “keep the platform alive, fix Siri, and chase lighter glasses people might actually wear.” (macrumors.com)
