Apple Vision Pro 2 will be cheaper and lighter, not just a chip upgrade, and the company is working on a Mac-tethered headset too, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
Gurman has a relatively strong track record of reliably reporting on Apple's product plans years in advance, and successfully described many details of Apple Vision Pro's hardware and software long before it was officially revealed.
In the latest edition of his weekly newsletter, Gurman claims that Apple is "readying" two new headsets, a Vision Pro successor and an entirely new Mac-tethered headset.
Apple Vision Pro Successor
Back in September, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that mass production of a refreshed Apple Vision Pro with an M5 chipset was expected to begin in the second half of 2025.
The M5 chip hasn't yet been announced, but Apple claims M4 has a 50% more powerful CPU and 4 times more powerful GPU than M2, suggesting the M5 Vision Pro could deliver a phenomenal performance increase.
David Heaney
Kuo said he didn't expect the hardware design or price to change "much". Now, Gurman writes that while Apple had previously considered doing a basic chip refresh, it's now "looking to go further".
According to Gurman, the new Vision Pro will be both cheaper and lighter, addressing the two primary concerns of the current headset.
Gurman doesn't say exactly how much lighter the headset should be, nor does he give an estimated price.
David Heaney
He also doesn't make any claims about when the headset should ship, though earlier in the week a lone Chinese report claimed that mass production has already begun.
Mac-Tethered Headset
Back in January, Gurman reported that Apple had canceled transparent AR display glasses that would have required a connection to your Mac (or originally, Apple had hoped, your iPhone), which he said were set to launch in 2027.
David Heaney
In his new report, Gurman stands by this reporting and says that Apple now plans to deliver the same concept, a head-worn device you plug into your Mac, but with an opaque VR-style display system, similar to Vision Pro.
The headset would be focused on delivering an ultra-low-latency Mac Virtual Display, and it has the potential to be cheaper and significantly lighter than the standalone Vision Pro 2.
AR Glasses Now Tim Cook's Top Priority
Gurman's new report also says that Apple CEO Tim Cook is "hell-bent" on releasing "industry-leading" AR glasses before Meta.
Gurman cites a source as saying “Tim cares about nothing else” and claiming that AR glasses are “the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.”
David Heaney
Still, Gurman notes that it will take "many years" for AR glasses to be ready. Back in 2023 he reported that Apple had postponed “indefinitely” plans for standalone AR glasses, due to the engineering challenges in bringing them out of the realm of science fiction into reality, though the company continued to work on microLED displays for AR.
Gurman has previously suggested that Meta's Orion AR glasses prototype, and the overwhelmingly positive reception to them from the tech industry, sparked a competitive spirit within Apple, and motivated the company to reevaluate what might be possible this decade.
Alex Coulombe
If Gurman's new reporting is accurate, it sounds like Tim Cook will stop at nothing to ensure that Apple, not Meta, will deliver the new "iPhone moment" that the introduction of appealing true AR glasses could be.
