The discomfort of wearing the Apple Vision Pro was one of the main criticisms when it was released last year, aside from the high cost. After only 20 minutes of wearing the front-heavy, 600–650 gram device, customers complained of neck strain.
"Just as the Mac introduced personal computing, and iPhone offered mobile computing, Vision Pro introduces spatial computing," Tim Cook said during WWDC 2023, promoting the product as a new foray into the field of "spatial computing."
According to Bloomberg, an upgraded model with a better strap and an M4 processor—up from the M2 chip the original came with—is currently under development. Although the exact date may change, it is expected that this updated version will be released later this year.
Regarding the weight problem, there is no sign that it will be resolved in the next release. The tentative 2027 model, which will "substantially lower" the headset's weight and potentially provide higher performance with more Neural Engine cores than the 16 that power the current Vision Pro, is scheduled to include that feature.
Although it seems unlikely that the new mixed reality headgear would be popular with the general public, Apple is at least hoping that developers will find it appealing and create apps for the platform, according to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg.
Additionally, Gurman thinks the Cupertino tech giant is utilizing the upgraded Vision Pro as a stall tactic until the less expensive model—codenamed N100—becomes available in 2027. This N100 model's polycarbonate casing is said to make it 40% lighter. We may see lower resolution screens in addition to the anticipated removal of features like EyeSight from the mainstream Vision Pro.
What Apple will call it is unknown to us. Something along the lines of "Vision Air." However, as the "Vision Air" is likely to have an A-series, iPhone-class CPU, don't anticipate the same level of performance as the M-series Vision Pros.
Relatedly, it has been stated that Apple is developing a much more reasonably priced MacBook that will use the A18 Pro chip, which is also used in the iPhone 16 Pro. The starting price of this less expensive Mac is likely to be between $699 and $899.