Apple is reportedly cutting down the production of the first batches of its Vision Pro headsets, slated to come early next year.
A Chinese OEM involved in assembling Apple’s MR headsets is preparing to make fewer than 400,000 units of Vision Pro in 2024, mismatching Apple’s commitment of bringing a million Vision Pro headsets next year. The exact details of why the company is cutting production are unknown.
Production of Apple’s MR Headsets
After nearly seven years of working, Apple finally launched its mixed-reality headset – Vision Pro, last month. Though it’s cooked up with some premium hardware, most felt the gear’s price was unreasonable and unaffordable – at $3,499 a piece.
That’s 7x the price of Meta’s latest Quest 3, which has most of the features from Apple’s Vision Pro. Well, despite the community criticism, Apple is proceeding to mass produce these headsets, heavily banking on its fanbase. The company has announced a million-unit production for 2024 and possible low-cost versions later.
While it has set a staggering target, a report from FT states that Apple is cutting down the production of Vision Pro significantly, citing unidentified people, but related to the matter, stating design complexity as the cause, the report said that Luxshare, Apple’s only assembler of the device, is gearing to make fewer than 400,000 units of Vision Pro in 2024.
Two other China-based suppliers also noted Apple asking for enough components for 130,000 to 150,000 units in the first year, corroborating the FT report. This is a big disappointment to the community and also to Luxshare, which is planning to increase the production of Vision Pro headsets to 18 million units a year later on.
Undoubtedly, making the Vision Pro gear isn’t easy. The MR headset comes with micro-OLED displays, which are of superior quality and cost. But Apple is reportedly unhappy with the yield of micro-OLEDs that are free of defects, which may be pushing the company to limit its supply temporarily.
