Apple is reportedly planning an M5 upgrade for the Vision Pro headset, most likely in 2025.
However, the much-rumoured cheaper consumer model is said to have been delayed "beyond 2027".
We've got good news and less-good news for would-be Vision Pro buyers – there's a considerably more powerful version on the horizon, but the cheaper consumer version is still a few years away.
That’s according to respected industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who posted on X that there will be a new, M5-powered Vision Pro launching in 2025. However, it's going to be the only head-mounted device Apple will release in the near future – Kuo says that the cheaper model has been "delayed beyond 2027".
The issue with the cheaper model isn't that Apple is having problems getting the price down, Kuo says: "Simply reducing the price wouldn't help create successful use cases."
Kuo compares the Vision Pro to the HomePod which, despite Apple's best efforts and the introduction of the HomePod mini, is still not a "mainstream" product.
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. I think what really drove Apple to delay the cheaper…November 3, 2024
What's Apple planning for the Vision Pro?
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has also predicted a chip upgrade for the Vision Pro, but he hasn't indicated when his sources expect the M5 version to appear. He also says in his latest newsletter that Apple remains committed to a cheaper headset with "scaled down technologies", but again there's no timescale for that.
One interesting remark in the same newsletter says that Gurman is continuing "to hear that Apple is seriously considering a device that offloads the computing components to the iPhone and serves as an accessory for watching movies." He compares the device to smart glasses.
However, there's a big difference between considering making a device and actually making it, let alone launching it.
There's something of a Catch-22 for the Vision Pro. Until there are enough headsets on people's heads there aren't going to be the killer apps that would make it a must-have; but until there are killer apps that'll make it a must-have, there aren't going to be enough headsets on people's heads.
The consumer version of the Vision Pro was designed to help with that, but it does still feel like Apple's VR headset is an answer trying to work out what the question is.
