Apple’s Vision Pro is great but has one key issue, its high price. A cheaper version is expected in the future, but it may not be a true standalone headset.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is considering a future Vision Pro headset that requires a connection to a phone, tablet or MacBook.
The current Vision Pro has a version of Apple’s M2 processor plus an Apple R1 chipset, which handles the information from the headset’s sensors.
A more affordable headset would still require an Apple R1, or an equivalent, but it sounds like Apple may offload the lion’s share of the processing of apps and VR experiences to another device.
As such, the affordable Vision Pro may end up being more PS VR 2 than Meta Quest 3.
However, the user experience may not actually be impacted that dramatically if Apple manages to implement a high-quality, low latency wireless solution between the headset and the other device.
Similar tech is used by plenty of Meta Quest headset owners who, for example, choose to play VR games using a PC rather than the Quest’s own phone-grade processor.
There’s a decent chance any Vision Pro owner will already be fairly near to a MacBook, iPhone or iPad when they use their headset anyway.
It seems unlikely support for this tethered Vision Pro will extend too far into the past, though. Even the latest Apple A17 Pro processors used in the iPhones 15 Pro phones have fewer processor and GPU cores than the current Vision Pro.
Other potential cutbacks Gurman reports Apple is considering include a narrower field of view, and dropping the outer screen used in the first version to display a simulated version of the wearer’s eyes.
Apple’s more mainstream take on the Vision Pro is expected to cost somewhere in the region of $1500 to $2000. It’s hardly affordable, but is closer to the costs of some of Apple’s other product ranges. The end of 2025 is its earliest expected release window, and it currently bears the codename N107.
It may also beat the second high-end Vision Pro headset to market. Gurman says this more straightforward sequel to the first headset won’t arrive before the end of 2026, having been at one point planned for 2025.
Sales of the Vision Pro have reportedly not met with original expectations, which may be the cause of this slow-down. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed in April that sales have only proved to be half that of industry expectations, at 400,000 to 450,000 units.
The Vision Pro has only recently become available to order out of the US, though. Pre-orders in “China mainland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore” opened on June 13, while those in “Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K.” can pre-order from June 28 for availability on July 12.
