Apple Is Working on New Vision Pro With Various Form Factors, Says Analyst

September 28, 2026:

Apple Is Working on New Vision Pro With Various Form Factors, Says Analyst

Apple appears to be picking its headset ambitions back up after a stretch of uncertainty surrounding the product’s future.

According to a new report, the company is once again actively developing new versions of Vision Pro, this time exploring multiple different shapes and use cases rather than a single successor.

Apple Is Now Working on New Vision Pro

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter, Apple is actively developing new Vision Pro hardware once again, following a period where the company had reportedly paused work on a lighter, cheaper headset to prioritize other projects.

Gurman’s reporting frames this renewed effort as part of Apple’s broader Vision Products Group, the internal team responsible for shepherding the headset’s future through several possible directions rather than committing to just one redesign.

The report follows a difficult stretch for the Vision Pro business, which included Apple cutting more than 200 roles tied to the headset earlier this year, with much of that reduction reportedly hitting the team responsible for gaming-related development on the platform.

New Form Factors Under Development

Apple is reportedly exploring at least a few distinct directions for where Vision Pro goes next, including a lighter and more affordable version of the current headset. Alongside this, a separate model is also under development and would have to rely on a connected Mac to handle processing rather than doing everything on device.

That Mac-tethered approach would let Apple simplify and lighten the headset itself, since it would not need to carry the same onboard computing power as the standalone version currently sold.

Apple Vision Pro
Apple

Beyond those two paths, Apple’s broader wearables strategy also includes work on AI smart glasses, codenamed N50, positioned as a more direct answer to Meta’s Ray-Ban lineup. Reports have also floated the possibility of AirPods equipped with a built-in camera as another potential product stemming from the same underlying visual intelligence research effort Apple has been investing in.

Apple’s Gen. AI Pushed Back Vision Pro

Much of this renewed Vision Pro activity comes after Apple previously shelved planned headset development to focus its attention on catching up in generative AI.

Reports last year indicated Apple internally reassigned staff away from the cheaper Vision Pro project, codenamed N100, specifically to speed up progress on smart glasses and its broader Apple Intelligence push. The company worked to overhaul Siri into a more capable, conversational assistant, which is now debuting as Siri AI.

That prioritization came at a real cost to Vision Pro’s roadmap, with some reports at the time suggesting the headset could face a lengthy delay before seeing any meaningful follow-up.

Apple had originally been developing both a cheaper, lightweight Vision Pro and a version built around a newer chip in the M5 family. However, those plans reportedly slowed considerably as Siri’s AI overhaul kept slipping behind schedule throughout 2025 and into 2026.

What to Expect From the Vision Pro

With Apple reportedly returning its attention to Vision Pro hardware, buyers should still temper expectations around timing. None of these reported form factors, whether the lighter standalone model, the Mac tethered version, or the smart glasses, currently have a confirmed release date.

Given how often Apple’s headset plans have shifted over the past couple of years, from delayed successors to reassigned engineering teams, the company’s exact direction for Vision Pro likely will not become clear until it is much closer to actually shipping one of these new versions.

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