Apple has reportedly stopped producing its expensive £3,500 Vision Pro headphones as unsold stock has built up.
The detail comes from a report by The Information, initially published last year, which has now been widely disseminated (thanks, Kotaku).
According to sources, Apple's component makers had supplied enough parts for at least 500,000 Vision Pro headphones by October 2024, but had actually only sold around 370,000. This had left “tens of thousands of undelivered parts” still waiting to be used.
Apple reportedly believes it has already manufactured enough components to meet the Vision Pro's expected lifetime total sales, which are lower than expected.
These figures roughly match a report published by the UK's Financial Times last summer, in which component suppliers said they expected to produce fewer than 400,000 units of the Vision Pro by the end of last year.
That same report claimed that Apple had significantly reduced its internal sales targets for the headphones due to production difficulties, after previously expecting at least 1 million sales in 2024.
Apple has reportedly had difficulty easily producing the Vision Pro's two micro-OLED displays for each eye, as well as the device's outward-facing lens.
The cost of the Vision Pro (around 10 times that of the Meta Quest VR headset) has likely also been a factor, putting the device out of reach for many VR enthusiasts. And while Apple reportedly still plans to follow up the Vision Pro with other devices, the company has yet to make its use case clear.
Apple describes The Vision Pro as a “spatial computer” that “seamlessly blends digital content with your physical space” and navigates apps or media using voice commands, eye tracking, and hand tracking. Some “space games” are also supported, including What the Golf?, Game Room, and Super Fruit Ninja; you can see it in action above.
Eurogamer has contacted Apple for comment.