Apple has laid off an entire team dedicated to Vision Pro VR development. The move lines up with reports that incoming CEO John Ternus wants to put the category “on ice.”
A reliable source tells us Apple has laid off at least 60 employees across its VR team, the Apple Vision Group, and related roles. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors like this. It doesn’t mean the Apple Vision Group is done, but it does signal that Apple is cooling off on the category.
Apple Vision Pro always played a bigger role than just being a standalone product. It let Apple build and test visionOS in the real world. That groundwork is expected to eventually lead to a full pair of AR glasses, a product we’ve been calling Apple Glass.
Vision Pro Hit a Wall Early
Apple Vision Pro launched with a steep price and a bulky design. Developer support never caught up either. Since then, Apple hasn’t pushed the category forward much, though it’s still unclear whether it actually needs to.
Rising component costs have only made things harder. Apple recently had to raise the Vision Pro’s price even further. If the device felt out of reach before, it’s even more so now.
At the same time, consumers are looking past heavy VR headsets. Smart glasses feel like the future to most people. Apple doesn’t have a way around this yet. The technology to build a thinner, lighter, more affordable headset either doesn’t exist yet or costs too much to produce.
Why Apple Is Restructuring Now
Apple doesn’t want an entire product group treading water. Over the past few months, Apple has restructured multiple teams to match its new priorities. Right now, that means Siri AI and smart glasses come first. A headset that isn’t feasible to build today comes second.
We’re still confirming some additional details about the layoffs before sharing more. For now, it looks like Apple hasn’t disbanded the team entirely, just trimmed it down. Apple will likely keep developing Vision Pro, its future versions, and smart glasses that run visionOS.
Still, the shrinking VR team makes the difficulty of this moment clear. Ternus probably won’t kill the product line outright. But scaling back the team while smart glasses take priority makes sense given where things stand.
Vision Pro Isn’t Dead
This news will likely spark talk that Apple has abandoned Vision Pro altogether. That doesn’t add up, though. Apple only released visionOS 27 back in June, and work on future iterations is still moving forward.
