Multiple reports this year claimed that Apple, and particularly its incoming CEO John Ternus, has canceled the Vision headset line altogether. But that just isn’t true.
It can be difficult to keep up with the rapidly changing, seemingly contradictory claims, especially when they’re recycled by outlets that don’t fully understand the context behind the decisions. This article is an attempt to break the rumors down, give context of what’s been claimed in the past, and help you understand what Apple might be planning.
There are two leading sources that have accurately predicted Apple’s future Vision headset plans before: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Both Gurman and Kuo have also been wrong before, though, and sometimes, as now, they contradict each other.
Since before the first Apple Vision Pro headset was even revealed, both Gurman and Kuo said Apple was already far along in developing a cheaper and lighter followup.
If those reports were accurate, the cheaper and lighter Vision headset was originally set to launch in 2025. But by late 2024 Kuo claimed that the headset was delayed “beyond 2027”, and in late 2025 Gurman said Apple “paused” the project to prioritize shipping smart glasses sooner.
Now, in a May newsletter, Gurman reported that Apple is working on a “slimmer and lighter” headset to succeed Vision Pro, but wrote that he doesn’t “anticipate” the device to launch until late 2028 at the earliest, and perhaps 2029.
Gurman’s report came just weeks after MacRumors claimed in April that Apple has “given up” on Vision Pro entirely and disbanded the visionOS team after the M5 refresh saw poor sales. And earlier this month Kuo also claimed that Apple’s incoming CEO John Ternus, set to succeed Tim Cook on September 1, has taken Vision headsets off the roadmap entirely. The MacRumors and Kuo reports led to a wave of secondary headlines claiming Apple will abandon the headset market for good, with endless hot takes and post mortems.
David Heaney
However, the idea of Apple abandoning the Vision headset line and visionOS line entirely seems farfetched, and, according to a source with knowledge of Apple’s work on a new headset, is wrong.
UploadVR understands that the “late 2028 at the earliest” headset Gurman is referring to is a new and total redesign, moving the main chipset to the external puck to significantly reduce the weight of the visor, a similar strategy to Meta’s next headset, and the approach we expect much of the industry to take in coming years. Given the major architectural difference, it will take a lot longer than the previous approach of just moderately reducing the weight of the existing chipset-onboard design.
And back in April, in an interview with Tom’s Guide, Ternus himself publicly said the following:
“I think we’re still very much in the early innings of spatial computing. We are super excited about it. The Vision Pro is an extraordinary product. As Joz said, it’s like we reached into the future and pulled it into the present. And people are continuing to find exciting new use cases for it. There’s a lot of compelling stuff in enterprise, in medicine, in other things, and that’s going to continue to grow. It’s fun, we’re at the beginning of the journey.“
Do these really sound like the words of an incoming CEO about to cancel the entire product line?
I asked Apple if Vision Pro is “on ice.” pic.twitter.com/4K9cPTAHmz
— Justin Ryan ᯅ (@justinryanio) June 10, 2026
Further, at WWDC 2026 Apple announced visionOS 27 with significant updates and improvements, many of which set the stage for the future, and the company continues to heavily invest in Apple Immersive Video.
These investments simply do not make sense in a narrative of the M5 Vision Pro being the final headset from Apple.
During the event, visionOS influencer Justin Ryan asked Senior Director at Apple responsible for product management and product marketing for visionOS whether Vision Pro is “on ice” and whether the team was broken up. Here was his response:
“It’s still early innings for spatial computing. And there’s a lot of things that we’re doing, and learning, and we’re continuing to improve on and continue to invest in. And so I would hope that updates like visionOS 27 and all the things we’re adding and all the things that we’re unlocking, whether it’s for consumer use or it’s for business use, serves as evidence that we are investing in this platform and we’re invested in this idea of spatial computing and building these capabilities that just can’t be done on any other device.”
That “just can’t be done on any other device” point is crucial. Some argue that visionOS is only being continued because it will one day run on Apple’s AR glasses. But this idea too simply makes no sense.
Apple Immersive Video, for example, simply would not work on the AR glasses conceivable to ship any time in the next 5 years due to the translucency and limited field of view, never mind simple smart glasses with a HUD that will come. And the vastly different requirements, form factor, and use case of glasses mean they will almost certainly run a new glassesOS, not the visionOS designed for headsets. It would be akin to the iPhone running macOS – not just the technical core, but the interface itself.
Apple’s moves only make sense in a situation where the company is not, in fact, abandoning headsets forever.
Apple Glasses Do Come First
What the reports about Apple’s plans do get right is that the company is currently strongly prioritizing smart glasses, and this is indeed affecting the urgency and priority of its headsets.
Both Gurman and Kuo agree that Apple’s next face-wearable will be displayless smart glasses, with cameras, speakers, and microphones, to take on Ray-Ban Meta. But even these may be slightly delayed.
As recently as February, Gurman was reporting that Apple Glasses were on track to be revealed this year for an early 2027 release. But late last month, Gurman reported that the release has been pushed back to late 2027, because the core functionality of the product depends on Siri AI and Visual Intelligence, and Apple wants to ensure it’s in a highly reliable state at launch.
Gurman’s previous reports described the glasses as lacking a display, having cameras, microphones and speakers, and being powered by a new Apple-designed chipset, based on the highly efficient S-series chips used in Apple Watch. The product would be used for phone calls, music playback, live translations, turn-by-turn directions, and multimodal AI, similar to Ray-Ban Meta.
To distinguish from Meta’s glasses, according to Gurman, Apple plans to use “high-end materials” and have two oval-shaped cameras, one for high-quality image and video capture, and the other for computer vision.
UploadVR’s take on that is that a dedicated computer vision sensor could draw significantly less power than a sensor designed for imaging, and thus be sampled continually for advanced use cases like spatially-aware pedestrian navigation. “Turn left just past that red Honda”, instead of “In 200 meters, turn left”. It might also enable hand gestures without the need for a wristband – though you would need to raise your arm. This is, though, to be clear, just our speculation.
Meanwhile, Kuo also reports that Apple plans to launch smart glasses with a binocular in-lens heads-up display (HUD) in 2029. While Kuo doesn’t say exactly whether this would be capable of true AR, Gurman describes true AR as not coming from Apple this decade, suggesting the 2029 product may be more of a competitor to Meta Ray-Ban Display and its successors.
