Apple Vision Pro will receive a chipset upgrade in 2025: Ming-Chi Kuo
Rumor has it that Apple will unveil an affordable version of the Vision Pro mixed reality headset sometime next year. Now, reputed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that the tech giant has postponed its plans to announce the budget successor to the Apple Vision Pro after 2027. The Cupertino, California-based company is said to instead plan to refresh the headset with a new M5 chipset next year. The planned lower-end Apple headset, on the other hand, is expected to run on an inferior chip, have lower resolution screens and skip the EyeSight feature, which displays the wearer’s eyes on the front of the Vision Pro screen.
Apple could release a new Vision Pro next year
In an X (formerly Twitter) message Sunday, TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said claimed that Apple had postponed its plans to release a cheaper Apple Vision Pro headset in 2025, with production of the cheaper version of the headset pushed back until after 2027. The analyst also said that Apple’s only headset to launch in 2025 would be a new version of the headset. Vision Pro with an improved M5 processor.
Kuo compared the budget-friendly Apple Vision Pro to Apple’s HomePod mini, stating that “even after the launch of the cheaper HomePod mini, Apple’s smart speakers failed to become mainstream products.” According to the analyst, Apple has delayed a cheaper version of the Vision Pro, likely because simply lowering the price of the headset would not “help create successful use cases” for the product.
As I understand it, production of the cheaper Vision Pro has been pushed back for a while until after 2027. This means that Apple’s only new head-mounted display in 2025 will be the Vision Pro with an upgraded M5 processor.
I think what really made Apple delay the cheaper one…
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) November 3, 2024
The cheaper head-mounted wearable is expected to cost around $2,000 (roughly Rs. 1,68,000), will likely be made of cheaper materials and run on an inferior chip. The headset could also skip the best-selling EyeSight feature from the first-generation Apple Vision Pro. Apple could reduce the quality of the internal XR displays in the rumored model to bring down costs as well.
The price of the original Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499 (approximately Rs. 2,90,000) for the 256GB storage model. The device is also available in 512 GB and 1 TB storage configurations.
Apple unveiled its first mixed-reality headset Vision Pro at WWDC 2023. It is currently on sale in select countries including the US, China, Europe and Japan. The headset supports both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies and runs on the visionOS operating system. It is powered by Apple’s M2 processor and an R1 chip under the hood.
