Apple Has Reportedly Cut Vision Pro Shipments As Demand For the Headset Falters

Apple’s Vision Pro headset doesn’t seem to be the groundbreaking success the company needs to find new sources of revenue. According to the latest hardware survey from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is now planning to ship between 400 and 450K units of its Vision Pro headset in 2024 instead of the forecasted 700-800K units due to lower than expected demand.

“Apple cut orders before launching Vision Pro in non-US markets, which means that demand in the US market has fallen sharply beyond expectations, making Apple take a conservative view of demand in non-US markets,” Ming-Chi Kuo wrote. The Apple analyst added that the company expects Vision Pro shipments to decline year-over-year in 2025. Moreover, we also may not see a new Vision Pro headset next year.

The Vision Pro is Apple’s first new product in years, but with a $3,499 launch price, it’s currently out of reach for most Apple fans and general tech enthusiasts. Moreover, if Apple received praise for its visionOS software, the app ecosystem is still immature and the headset doesn’t seem to have a real killer feature yet.

Many reviews have also pointed out that the headset is just too heavy and uncomfortable to use over a long period. That had to be expected for a v1 product, but even if Apple manages to ship a lighter version of its headset in the future, most people will likely prefer to sit down in front of traditional screens.

While Apple will likely struggle to break into the VR/AR market, Meta seems poised to increase its leadership. This week, the company announced that it was opening up its Meta Horizon OS to other manufacturers as it’s hoping to create an open mixed reality ecosystem. The company also announced new updates for its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses collection, which now lets users share their view on a video call and access a new Meta AI assistant. It’s quite surprising that a lifestyle brand like Apple didn’t come up with this idea first, but Meta did also say that its smart glasses were “selling out faster than we can make them.”