Due to poor sales, Apple may suspend the assembly of Vision Pro as early as November and halt the development of high-end versions for at least a year. Currently, suppliers have produced enough components for 500,000 to 600,000 headsets, and Apple may have accumulated enough inventory to sell into next year. An employee mentioned that in recent weeks, Apple has informed the assembly partner for Vision Pro, Luxshare-ICT, to reduce production from around 2,000 units per day to approximately 1,000 units
Apple's Vision Pro headset "getting colder", with multiple supply chain sources saying Apple has decided to cut production.
On October 23, Eastern Time, The Information cited multiple sources directly involved in the production of components for the device, stating that Apple has significantly reduced production of the Vision Pro mixed reality headset since early summer and may completely stop production of the current version of the device by the end of the year.
According to The Information's previous report, Apple decided earlier this year to manufacture a cheaper headset than the current version (priced at $3,500), which may be released by the end of 2025.
In simple terms, this move may indicate that Apple believes the current version of the mixed reality headset is too expensive and difficult to sell, so they plan to make a cheaper version. The current expensive version may not be produced by the end of the year. Apple's decision to halt production may also mean that they have enough inventory to sell, so they are not in a hurry to produce new ones.
At the same time, another source directly involved in Apple's supply chain revealed that they have also suspended the upgrade research and development work for the second-generation high-end version for at least a year, to be decided later.
Report: Multiple suppliers reduce production of Vision Pro components
Apple's first Vision Pro headset has poor sales due to its high price and limited software availability. Employees from three suppliers providing various electronic and mechanical parts for Vision Pro stated that they have produced enough parts for 500,000 to 600,000 headsets, but Apple's sales forecast is very pessimistic, so they stopped producing parts in May, with tens of thousands of undelivered parts still in warehouses.
For Apple, Vision Pro is its biggest bet in new product categories in years. However, Apple is already behind its competitor Meta in this field. Meta has been selling headsets for several years at a cheaper price, with the latest model priced at only $300.
Research firm Counterpoint stated that Apple sold approximately 370,000 headsets in the first three quarters of this year and is expected to sell only about 50,000 by the end of the year. In comparison, Meta sold around 6 million Quest 2 headsets and 3 million Quest 3 headsets in the first three quarters after their launch, despite their lower pricing.
An employee from Luxshare-ICT mentioned that in recent weeks, Apple has informed Luxshare-ICT, responsible for the final assembly of Vision Pro, that production may need to be stopped in November. Luxshare-ICT currently produces about 1,000 Vision Pro headsets per day, less than the peak of 2,000 per day. Since production began last year until the release in the U.S. in February this year, they have assembled approximately 500,000 to 600,000 headsets.
According to sources in Apple's supply chain, Apple began increasing production of Vision Pro headsets and related components last fall, so Apple may already have enough inventory to sell this device until next year. They also mentioned that if sales start to rise, production of Vision Pro can quickly resume, as Apple has not dismantled the production lineAccording to a source involved in the Vision Pro supply chain, Apple has informed a supplier that during the entire production period of the upcoming budget version (internally codenamed N109), they will need to produce enough components for 4 million headsets. In comparison, Apple had previously estimated a need for 8 million headsets, but this estimate was made before the product was released.
Although Apple's high-end Vision product development is currently on hold, analysts and individuals involved in the Vision Pro supply chain suggest that Apple may still make some minor updates to Vision Pro, such as tweaking its design. In this scenario, Apple may upgrade the main processor but keep the other parts of the device mostly unchanged in order to utilize excess components.
In an interview published on Sunday, Apple CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal that Vision Pro is too expensive and not targeted at the mass market, but some tech enthusiasts who enjoy trying new technologies are still willing to buy it. Cook stated:
"This product is designed for those who want to use tomorrow's technology today, and there are quite a few people like that, which makes me quite excited."