Apple Vision Pro isn't dead

I've already written plenty on this topic, so I won't beat a dead horse. It's earnings day. I just recorded a podcast that needs editing, so let's knock this one out quick.

Apple doesn't do dedicated teams for specific product lines. There isn't an "iPhone" team that has hardware, software, chip, and design folks in a room with a team manager. Instead, Apple has a hardware design team that's responsible for all design, a chip lab that's building chips for every product, and so on.

Sure, if you pulled one engineer aside and asked what they worked on, they might answer "I help design the iPhone." But they're part of a bigger whole that coordinates across Apple's other divisions. This corporate structure is a result of Steve Jobs' style and hasn't gone away.

There have been very few exceptions. Project Titan needed a dedicated team because of its secrecy and speciality. No one else at the company was working on autonomous vehicles. When the project was abandoned, the people that were experts on tires were let go, and everyone else was absorbed.

That is not what happened with Apple Vision Pro.

The Vision team was created from Mike Rockwell's special team that was seeking out future project initiatives. Cook prioritized the Vision platform, and thus that team was born. Again, it is unusual that a team was built instead of having the product developed in R&D and design labs.

Apple Vision Pro took years to realize, and when it debuted in 2023, the team became somewhat redundant. The cat was out of the bag, so secrecy was no longer required. Apple Vision Pro could be absorbed into the greater Apple product pipeline blob.

The team persisted through early 2025 when Mike Rockwell was chosen to head the Siri team. That's when the group saw some members follow Rockwell, leaving behind a visionOS-specific team that Rockwell still oversaw.

The only reason I could guess that the Vision team persisted from 2023 to 2025 is due to forward-looking projects. Apple was still investigating if AR glasses could happen sooner rather than later, and the team likely explored cheaper headset options, hence all the rumors of an impending release.

Finally, we arrive at today when the team has finally fully dissolved. It makes sense. Johny Srouji is the new hardware chief, and Ternus will soon be CEO. There is a lot of internal reorganization going on.

To be clear, Ternus is not CEO yet, and he isn't pulling plugs on projects. I saw a few people that should know better speculating that Apple had "given up" on Apple Vision Pro because it wasn't a favorite of Ternus.

He isn't making these kinds of calls – he's not in charge. Not yet.

Even so, this falls under the "gossip" category of reporting I discussed previously, and I find it distasteful that we're basing potential company-altering decisions on people running their mouths.

Apple Vision Pro isn't dead as a product or a category. visionOS 27 will still be revealed during WWDC 2026. There will ultimately be a successor product to Apple Vision Pro, but that could be more than a year away. The platform will ultimately result in AR glasses that run visionOS.

In the meantime, a new product category will emerge and become Apple's focus outside of iPhone – smart glasses. These are due at the end of 2026 and are not part of the Vision platform as far as we can tell.

For all we know, Apple could brand them with "vision" or even suggest they're running a version of visionOS, but I highly doubt it. Technologically speaking, these smart glasses will be no more advanced than a pair of AirPods with cameras attached to frames you wear on your face. I don't believe they'll be called AirPods either. They'll likely have a whole new name and fall into the broad wearables category.

These are different products and will be developed in tandem. Apple releasing smart glasses doesn't mean Apple Vision Pro is being given up on. Nor does it mean that AR is a priority, since smart glasses aren't AR.

Let's take a collective breath and see what happens. Though, I can almost guarantee that the Vision platform and product line haven't been given up on.

An update

A few hours after my blog post here, John Gruber of Daring Fireball came out with a story confirming what I believed to be true – Apple Vision Pro and the Vision platform isn't dead.

He did one better than me and confirmed with people on the Vision team that it hadn't been disbanded. I had to write my story yesterday and today's blog under the assumption that the rumor was true, which as it turns out, it isn't.

I suppose the rumors of Apple Vision Pro's death were quite exaggerated after all.