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Apple’s Next Vision Pro Project Faces Uncertainty as It Tests Lighter Designs

Company engineers are weighing integrated headsets against an external 'puck' after Meta’s new lightweight, puck‑tethered glasses changed market expectations.

Overview

  • Bloomberg and other reports say Apple has opened a successor program codenamed N224 to follow the Vision Pro, but the effort is still early and its future is uncertain.
  • Insiders told reporters the N224 effort is on "life support" inside Apple because employees and executives are split over form factor and cost goals.
  • Apple is exploring about four hardware concepts, including a fully integrated headset, a lighter glasses‑style design, and a detachable 'puck' that would hold battery and compute, while testing plastics, titanium and other materials to cut weight.
  • Coverage of Meta’s lighter, two‑part VR Glasses, which pairs a glasses frame with a pocket puck, has pressured Apple to rethink tradeoffs between comfort and on‑device computing in spatial devices.
  • If N224 survives internal reviews, reporting estimates a possible launch in late 2028 to early 2029, and the work follows earlier shelved projects such as the N100 'Vision Air' as Apple shifts more public attention toward smart glasses.