Report: Apple drastically scales back marketing for Vision Pro – lack of demand due to lack of apps | News

In February 2024, Apple launched the Vision Pro in the US. The device met with mixed media response: On the one hand, the trade press was very impressed by the technical possibilities and praised the sophisticated eye tracking and the control via hand gestures. On the other hand, critics complained about the heavy weight of the headset, the short battery life and the price. Cupertino has now improved on the last two points. The Vision Pro M5 is also likely to have a niche existence: Apple seems to be able to achieve anything but a commercial success with the headset.

Vision Pro: Low demand for Apple’s mixed reality headset
According to a recent report in the Financial Times, the Vision Pro represents a “rare failure” for Apple: According to the market research company International Data Corporation, the Chinese manufacturing partner Luxshare produced 390,000 units of the headset in 2024. At the end of 2024, Apple even stopped production completely (see here). The Financial Times also refers to new figures from Sensor Tower regarding the marketing of the headset: Cupertino has reduced spending on digital advertising in markets such as the USA and the United Kingdom by 95 percent. According to IDC, the Vision Pro was unable to score points in the important Christmas quarter of 2025 either: Apple only sold 45,000 devices from October to December.

One of the biggest problems: There are no apps
Apple currently sells the device in 13 countries. So far, the group has not announced any expansion, which is also an indication of weak demand. Erik Woodring, analyst at Morgan Stanley, blames the design, costs and the lack of native apps. In fact, key third-party applications for visionOS are still missing, including Netflix, YouTube and Spotify. Apple is therefore faced with a dilemma: there are too few apps to arouse customer interest. Due to the few users, many developers would not want to program applications for the Vision Pro. In addition, similar products from the competition do not trigger any hype: the market for VR headsets fell by 14 percent year-on-year. With a market share of 80 percent, Meta is in the lead with its Quest headsets, but the company also significantly reduced its marketing spending last year.