M.G. Siegler • #vision pro • Oct 2, 2025

Apple Confronts the Vision Pro Mistake

By fully shifting focus to smart glasses...

There's a scene in The Return of the King where Frodo, beyond weary from his travels in Mordor, slips the Ring of Power on his finger. The Eye of Sauron immediately senses something and shifts its focus to the hobbit at the base of Mount Doom. I was reminded of this scene while reading about Apple apparently pausing development on the thinner and lighter (and presumably cheaper) Vision Pro in favor of working on Smart Glasses. One can imagine when Zuck slipped on the Meta Ray-Ban Displays for the first time a couple weeks back, the Eye of Cook in Cupertino immediately swung around and...

Apple Inc. has hit pause on a planned overhaul to its Vision Pro headset to redirect resources toward a more urgent effort: developing smart glasses that can rival products from Meta Platforms Inc.

The company had been preparing a cheaper, lighter variant of its headset — code-named N100 — for release in 2027. But Apple announced internally last week that it’s moving staff from that project to accelerate work on glasses, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Ever since the debut of the Vision Pro all we've heard is some variation of "just wait until it's thinner and lighter and cheaper". Well, so much for that. If nothing else, this is a clear, if implicit, admission by Apple that they made a mistake in timing with the Vision Pro line. And perhaps an even larger mistake, as for the 30th year in a row, the VR market – sorry, "Spatial Computing" – has failed to materialize and Apple's $3,500 entry did little to change that.

But, but, but this was always known – and in fact, was the plan, Apple's camp (and apologists) will say. Sure, sure. Anyway, plans change. And while we're still about to get an upgraded Vision Pro with a new chip, that may be the last we hear about the line for some time – perhaps ever, if Apple finds success approaching the market from the ground up (Smart Glasses) versus the top down (VR Headsets). Don't be shocked if the Vision Pro is retconned into an overall 'Vision' strategy that now means Smart Glasses until we get to the "true" holy grail of AR glasses.¹

The company is working on at least two types of smart glasses. The first one, dubbed N50, will pair with an iPhone and lack its own display. Apple aims to unveil this model as soon as next year, ahead of a release in 2027, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters.

Yeah, a 2027 launch – six years after Meta's first foray into the space is sort of embarrassing. But mainly because unlike with Apple's usual playbook of not-so-fast following others into spaces, Meta is actually already seeing some success here. Especially since the Ray-Ban partnership started in 2023. And now they're several variations in, and will be one or two more by the time Apple's first model hits. The sales numbers are still small relative to basically anything Apple does (aside from Vision Pro!), but they're growing. And Apple is watching...

Apple is also working on a version with a display — something that could challenge the just-released Meta Ray-Ban Display. The Apple version had been planned for 2028, but the company is now looking to accelerate development, the people said.

You can't help but wonder if Apple shouldn't skip the non-screen version. Or make that the cheaper second-option version released at the same time. 2028 might as well be the 22nd century when it comes to how quickly AI development is going, and clearly that technology will be crucial for these devices. They need to move faster here – especially with Google and others coming as well. Again, I get that moving slowly is Apple's playbook, but I'm telling you that this market – related to the AI market – is different. And increasingly it won't just be about the AI being used on the devices, it's about the devices being used to help train the AI with real world data.

Anyway, admitting – again, even if implicitly – that the Vision Pro strategy to date has been a mistake is a good first step here. It's too bad because they were starting to see some success, making the device actually start to make some sense. But the hardware reality remains what it is. And what it is, remains far away. As I wrote last November about 'Apple's Shifting Vision Pro Strategy' back then:

The problem with the above "cheaper" version is that it undoubtedly wouldn't be that much cheaper. While a $1,999 'Vision' is significantly less expensive percentage-wise than the $3,499 Vision Pro, it wouldn't open up a whole new market opportunity for Apple. They'd sell more units, sure, but it would still largely be the "$2,000 VR headset" versus Meta's "$300 VR headset". Apple would never frame it this way, of course – it's "Spatial Computing" remember? – but the market would. Apple can get away with selling a product 2x more expensive than the market leader – probably even at $999, if it's that much better – but not a still nearly order of magnitude price difference.

So yes, I think it would be a mistake to release a $2,000 'Vision' into the market, just as I thought it was a mistake to release a $3,500 Vision Pro into the market. Again, Apple says everything is going as expected, but it's bullshit to suggest they didn't wish the device was selling better. They took a swing, but it was with the wrong bat in the wrong game. They should have taken some practice swings in the cages – with a dev kit or two. Changing the bat to a lighter one but still against the same pitcher in the same game throwing 100mph heat isn't going to help much.

With Meta now seemingly continuing to back off their VR strategy as well in favor of smart glasses, they're sort of forcing Apple's hand here. And Meta remains dangerous because they need this market to happen, whereas Apple does not. And such casualness has clearly hurt Apple. As has the fast rise of AI, drawing Cook's gaze almost like the alliance at the Black Gate...

One more thing: I continue to wonder if Apple will want/need a design partner here like Meta has? Too bad this guy is now busy working on competing things... Maybe they can convince Hermès to do some glasses? And you thought the $3,500 Vision Pro was expensive...