Apple De-Prioritizes Enclosed Vision Headsets as Focus Shifts to Smart Glasses

Apple has quietly deprioritized the development of major new enclosed virtual reality headsets to focus its hardware engineering resources on lighter wearable devices. The shift suggests Apple is no longer prioritizing a new Vision headset release in the near term, and upcoming software updates for the platform are expected to remain relatively modest.



The company dismantled its dedicated Vision Products Group over a year ago, folding the staff back into the broader hardware and software engineering departments. Executive Mike Rockwell, who originally led the headset division, has since been reassigned to oversee a combined Siri and visionOS organization. According to Mark Gurman, Rockwell now spends nearly all of his time focused on Siri, and many of his top visionOS deputies have made the same transition.


This internal restructuring follows reports that Apple scaled back Vision Pro production due to weak consumer demand and the headset's $3,499 entry price. While Apple continues to advertise hardware engineering jobs tied to visionOS and spatial computing, those listings are said to be connected more closely to the company's long-term augmented reality smart glasses efforts.

Apple canceled development of a cheaper "Vision Air" model last year, and any future enclosed headset is believed to be at least two years away. Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus was not considered a strong proponent of the Vision Pro during its development. However, company leadership continues to view the device as a necessary technical stepping stone toward lightweight AR glasses, which remain the ultimate goal for the category.

In the near term, Apple's hardware teams are prioritizing other AI-driven wearables. The company is actively developing camera-equipped AirPods and other products designed to provide environmental context to Siri and Apple Intelligence features.

Because engineering attention has shifted elsewhere, visionOS 27 is expected to focus primarily on bug fixes, performance stability, and feature parity with iOS 27 and macOS 27 rather than major new spatial computing experiences. The update should also bring many of the Siri and AI-related enhancements planned for Apple's broader software ecosystem.