When Apple unveiled Vision Pro, its innovative Mixed Reality headset, the price of the device shocked all fans of the company. With a price tag of $3,499, Vision Pro is certainly not a device for everyone: this, however, does not mean that the Cupertino house is not working on a low-cost version of its latest product.
On the contrary, we have known for months that a low-budget Vision Pro is being worked on in the offices of the Bitten Apple. Today, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman explained that this low-cost headset will arrive in 2025, probably during the Christmas season. In short, Apple’s roadmap would point to a launch of a Vision Pro low-cost between November and December 2025.
But how could Apple ad reduce the costs of Vision Pro enough to offer a viewer that costs no more than $1,500-2,000? Taking a look at the production cost list of Vision Pro, leaked just before WWDC, we find that the three most expensive components of the headset are the dual Apple Silicon chip (a combination of M2 chip and R1 chip), the twelve cameras and six sensors of theheadset and most importantly the dual 4K microLED screens for virtual reality.
According to Gurman, the first thing Apple will do in the coming months will be lower the quality of Vision Pro screens to reduce production costs of the version budget-friendly of the viewer, even to the detriment of the visual rendering and the immersiveness of the mixed reality world created by theheadset. Furthermore, it seems that Cupertino could revise the design of its headset slightly, veering towards an option with fewer moving parts and a simple band around the user’s head.
Finally, Gurman always reports that the Vision Pro 3D camera will be cut off in the budget model of the viewer, while a system of tracking of the less precise eye could reduce production costs. Finally, the improvement of production processes and economies of scale could reduce the price of the device by several hundred dollars, also positively impacting the final cost of the headset for the user.