Apple Vision Pro — the iPhone maker's first wearable spatial computer — is slated to go on sale in early 2024, but the rumoured cheaper version that was said to be in the works might have been cancelled. According to details shared by TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, shipments of the Cupertino company's first mixed reality headset will remain below market expectations during the first year and that the company might not release a successor to the headset for a few more years.
In a new Medium post citing maximum production capacity of some component suppliers, Kuo claims that while the market expects Apple to ship 1 million units within the first year, he estimates that the company will ship "at most 400,000–600,000 units". This is in line with an earlier report that projected similar production estimates for the wearable device.
Kuo also states that the rumoured low-cost version of the Apple Vision Pro headset that was said to arrive a year after the debut of the first model, may have been cancelled at the company. Back in June, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman stated that the successor to the Apple Vision Pro was already in development and a cheaper model would be released by the end of 2025.
The purported Apple Vision Pro 2 is unlikely to arrive until the first half of 2027, according to the analyst. This implies that Apple is unlikely to introduce newer spatial computers — at a cheaper or more expensive price point — aside from the Vision Pro for the next few years.
Back in July, a report stated that the Cupertino company was forced to make major cuts to its forecasts for the production of the Apple Vision Pro. At the time, it was reported that Luxshare — Apple's contract manufacturer based in China — was working towards production of "fewer than 400,000 units" of the first-generation Apple Vision Pro in the first year.
Earlier this year, Apple announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event that its first spatial computer would go on sale in early 2024. Since then, details of the prescription optical inserts for the headset have been revealed by Zeiss. Apple also released its visionOS developer tools that would allow app makers to develop software for the device, ahead of its debut next year.
