Apple’s newest product category, Apple Vision Pro, landed just over two weeks ago. But that hasn’t stopped speculation from building about when the second-gen model might arrive—and it could be a lot sooner than anyone had expected.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter, there’s still a while to wait before Vision Pro 2. Gurman says, “Apple Inc. is probably at least 18 months away from launching a second-generation Vision Pro. Based on the early response to the first version, that may be a long time for some people to wait.”
I’ll be honest, I don’t think there was even the slightest possibility that a year from now we’d be unwrapping Apple Vision Pro second-generation. Here’s why.
1. It’s Not Always How Apple Does Things
After the first Apple Watch went on sale in April 2015, the second-gen model went on sale in September 2016, a wait of 17 months between releases.
The first AirPods, announced in September 2016, released December 2016, didn’t see a successor until March 2019, well over two years later.
Its’ true that after the first iPad announced in January 2010 and launched in March 2010, there was a wait of only a year, though other factors, including Steve Jobs’ declining health may have played a part in this.
Similarly, although the first and second iPhones appeared in June of 2007 and 2008 respectively, there was a very long lead time between the announcement of the first model (January 2007) and launch, giving Apple’s engineers longer to prep the second edition.
2. The International Sales
Apple Vision Pro is only on sale in the U.S. at the moment. Apple has said that it will be released in further territories, including the U.K. during 2024, but that could be as late as December, theoretically.
In which case, Apple would be hesitant about releasing version 2 just weeks after the first model and it wouldn’t want to have the first-gen on sale in some places, and not others.
By the way, I think Vision Pro is going to land in the U.K., Canada and maybe some other places sooner than December. A lot sooner.
3. Other Intel
Until Gurman posited second-half 2025 as the earliest possible release—and note that he doesn’t say 18 months away but “at least 18 months”–other reports from the likes of Ming-Chi Kuo of TFI Securities have hinted at a much later release for Gen 2. Kuo said 2027: “The Vision Pro 2 could enter mass production by 1H27 at the latest, suggesting there may be no hardware updates for the Vision Pro in the coming years.”
Kuo did say that a lower-cost Vision Pro could land in 2025, but in the same report said this was now off the cards. The jury is out on this.
So, that leaves us looking forward to Vision Pro 2 next year. It’s a long way ahead to pick a release date, but since you ask me to, I’m going to say September or October 2025.
Please check back for more information between then and now.
