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As John Ternus takes over as Apple CEO, company ‘fires’ an entire VR development team, working on a Vision Pro that Tim Cook once called…
Apple cuts an entire VR development team of 60 employees days before John Ternus becomes CEO
Apple has laid off at least 60 employees tied to its virtual reality effort, AppleInsider reported on Thursday, citing a reliable source. The publication says an entire team dedicated to VR development was cut, covering staff attached to the Apple Vision Group and similar roles. Apple has not commented on the report, and AppleInsider notes the wider group has not been dissolved.Look at when this is happening. John Ternus becomes Apple’s chief executive on September 1, taking over from Tim Cook, who shifts to executive chairman. The product now being quietly trimmed is the one Cook sold to the world in February 2024 as “tomorrow’s technology today,” a $3,499 headset he described as magical and backed with a claim of 5,000 patents and a million compatible apps on day one. Ternus has reportedly put the category on ice.
Apple Vision Pro
isn’t dead, but the team behind it keeps shrinking
This is not the first sign of a slowdown. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported more than a year ago that the Vision Products Group had been broken up, with hardware and software staff folded into Apple’s larger engineering organisations and Mike Rockwell moved across to fix Siri. Publicly, the messaging has stayed steady. Apple’s visionOS product marketing lead Steve Sinclair said two months ago that spatial computing is still in its “early innings,” pointing to visionOS 27 as proof of continued investment. Ternus used almost identical language in April, calling Vision Pro an exceptional product with growing traction in enterprise and medicine.The sales picture never matched the ambition. IDC estimated Vision Pro shipped under 500,000 units in 2024, and there is little to suggest it has crossed a million since. Apple refreshed it last October with the M5 chip, 10 percent more rendered pixels and 120Hz refresh, holding the price at $3,499. Then in June, with memory costs spiralling, Apple raised it to $3,699. A device that was already a hard sell got harder.
Why Apple’s smart glasses roadmap explains the VR layoffs
Resources are moving toward Siri AI and wearables that people will actually put on every day. Apple’s first smart glasses are expected to be unveiled at WWDC 2027 and ship later that year, built around cameras, Siri and Visual Intelligence rather than an AR display. Apple had reportedly wanted them out this year, but pushed the timeline back while rethinking privacy, watching the backlash Meta’s camera glasses have attracted.Cook’s pitch was always aimed at early adopters, people willing to buy the future before it was comfortable or cheap. Two and a half years on, Apple appears to have concluded that the future is not a headset at all. It sits on your nose, weighs almost nothing, and does not need 5,000 patents to explain itself.
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