Apple Lays Off 60 Vision Pro Employees as Company Pivots Toward Smart Glasses Ahead of CEO Change

Apple has laid off at least 60 employees from its Vision Products Group, according to a report from AppleInsider, marking a significant scaling back of the company’s virtual reality development efforts just days before a major leadership transition and as Apple increasingly shifts its wearable ambitions toward smart glasses.

AppleInsider, citing its own source, reported that Apple “has just laid off an entire team dedicated to VR development,” according to MacRumors’ coverage of the report. The cuts affected employees across Apple’s Vision Group and other roles tied to virtual reality development, though multiple outlets covering the layoffs, including AppleInsider itself, cautioned that the team has not been completely disbanded as a result of the cuts.

The layoffs arrive at a particularly consequential moment for Apple’s leadership structure. According to Stocktwits, the restructuring comes just days before John Ternus, Apple’s current head of hardware engineering, is set to take over as chief executive on Sept. 1, succeeding Tim Cook. Ternus is expected to have significant influence over the company’s future product priorities, and AppleInsider reported that the incoming CEO had reportedly signed off on canceling both a second-generation Vision Pro headset and a cheaper, slimmer alternative that had been internally referred to as “Vision Air.”

According to MacRumors, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman had previously reported that Apple’s Vision Pro team was disbanded and its members redistributed across other projects within the company, following the October 2025 refresh of the Vision Pro headset and what the report described as weak consumer reception for that update. Gurman does not expect Apple to launch another dedicated headset before late 2028 at the earliest, according to MacRumors’ reporting.

The broader restructuring of Apple’s Vision Products Group has been unfolding gradually over the course of the year rather than representing a single, sudden decision. According to reporting from KORE1, MacRumors, Daring Fireball and UploadVR all confirmed in late April that Apple had stopped active development on next-generation Vision Pro hardware entirely and had begun redistributing the Vision Products Group across other parts of the company. As part of that earlier reorganization, Mike Rockwell, the original Vision Pro chief who has been leading Apple’s Siri turnaround effort since March 2025, took the visionOS software teams with him into software engineering chief Craig Federighi’s broader organization. Paul Meade, the Vision Products Group’s head of hardware engineering, remained in charge of the group’s remaining hardware staff, who have primarily focused on supporting the current M5 Vision Pro model and Apple’s in-development smart glasses program, internally codenamed N50.

Apple’s pivot toward smart glasses reflects the company’s assessment of where meaningful growth opportunities exist within the broader wearable technology category, particularly as rival Meta Platforms has built a substantial early lead in the space. According to Stocktwits, Meta has sold millions of units of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and has since expanded its lineup with the Oakley Meta line, giving the company a significant head start as major technology companies race to establish themselves within the emerging category.

Apple’s own first generation of AI-powered smart glasses is expected to be unveiled at its Worldwide Developers Conference in 2027, with a public launch to follow later that same year, according to multiple outlets including 9to5Mac and Newsbytes. Unlike the Vision Pro, which relies on an augmented reality display, Apple’s smart glasses are reportedly expected to rely primarily on onboard cameras, the company’s Siri voice assistant, and its Visual Intelligence features, rather than incorporating a full augmented reality display of the kind used in the Vision Pro headset.

The timeline for Apple’s smart glasses has itself shifted amid broader industry concerns regarding user privacy tied to camera-equipped wearable devices. According to 9to5Mac, Apple had originally hoped to unveil its smart glasses this year and launch them in early 2027, but pushed that timeline back as the company reconsidered privacy-related aspects of the product amid growing public backlash directed at Meta’s own AI-powered glasses, which have similarly drawn scrutiny over their camera and recording capabilities.

Despite the significant scaling back of its Vision Pro-focused workforce, Apple has continued to emphasize that it remains committed to its broader spatial-computing ambitions rather than abandoning the category outright. According to Newsbytes, Apple has maintained its commitment to visionOS and continues developing the software platform even as its hardware ambitions for the Vision Pro line specifically have narrowed. AppleInsider similarly noted that it remains highly unlikely Ternus intends to eliminate the Vision Pro product line entirely, characterizing the latest layoffs instead as a downsizing of the dedicated VR team paired with a sharper focus on the company’s smart glasses program, a strategic adjustment the outlet described as sensible given the current market realities facing high-end headset hardware.

Vision Pro’s commercial struggles since its February 2024 launch have been widely documented across the technology press. According to Softonic, while reviewers broadly praised the original Vision Pro’s display quality and technical ambition, the device faced persistent criticism over its high price, bulky design, limited third-party app ecosystem, and generally thin everyday use cases, factors that collectively contributed to what multiple outlets have described as weaker-than-expected consumer demand for the product.

Apple’s stock showed only a modest reaction to news of the layoffs. According to Stocktwits, shares of Apple declined 1.8% the day before the report emerged and rose only marginally in subsequent overnight trading, suggesting investors did not view the restructuring as a particularly significant development for the company’s broader financial outlook.

Reaction to the reported layoffs among Apple’s user community has been mixed, with some longtime observers pointing to the Vision Pro’s price point as the central factor behind its commercial struggles. Commenting on MacRumors’ coverage of the report, one reader argued that the device’s initial pricing doomed its broader adoption prospects, writing that a lower starting price would have led to significantly greater commercial success for the product.

With visionOS 27 currently in beta testing and Apple continuing active development work on the software platform even as its hardware-focused Vision team shrinks, the company’s broader spatial-computing strategy appears to be entering a new phase focused more heavily on lighter-weight wearable devices rather than continued investment in high-end, immersive headset hardware. As Ternus prepares to formally take over as Apple’s chief executive on Sept. 1, the coming months are likely to offer further clarity on how the company’s broader wearable technology strategy continues to evolve under his leadership, particularly as Apple works toward its expected 2027 unveiling of its first generation of AI-powered smart glasses.