Apple reportedly slashes its Vision roadmap for smart glasses, and Meta’s lead matters more than ever

A year ago, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo published a Vision product roadmap featuring seven devices. Now, he has published a new one with just two products remaining. 

The change in the product roadmap, Kuo claims, has been approved by John Ternus, Apple’s incoming CEO, who officially takes over on September 1, 2026.

What did Apple cut and what survived?

According to Kuo’s updated analysis (via X), only two of the seven products have survived, and Apple has cancelled five of them. 

Of the two, one is a pair of AI smart glasses that competes directly with the Meta Ray-Ban lineup, while the other is a display-equipped pair of AR glasses that uses optical waveguides (it layers virtual content over the real world). 

The AI glasses are expected in 2027, and the AR glasses won’t arrive until 2029 (at the earliest). Everything else, including plans for a successor to the Vision Pro, along with the lighter Vision Air, is gone. 

Apple’s decision, Kuo explains, prioritizes “smart glasses with greater mass-market potential,” and I couldn’t agree more, but the timing might not be right.

What makes smart glasses a better bet than mixed reality headsets?

According to a Counterpoint Research report published in February 2026, the global smart glasses shipments grew 139% year-over-year in the second half of 2025. 

Meta, the company behind the most popular AI smart glasses in the world, is leading the market with its strong lineup (including the Meta Ray-Ban Display) and consistent rollout of AI-based features. 

It held a market share of 82% in the same period, owing to its global presence, strong collaborations with established eyewear brands, and hardware backed by intuitive software features. 

The company has single-handedly demonstrated the potential of the market, and it’s only expected to grow further in the coming years. It’s clear that Apple wants a piece of the market, but Meta’s years of head start and experience may work against the Cupertino giant. 

Is Apple running out of time in the smart glasses race?

Every month Apple spends restructuring its roadmap is a month Meta spends selling, iterating, and building the retail infrastructure that makes smart glasses feel normal. 

What’s even more concerning is that the company’s smart glasses might not ship until the end of 2027, which gives Meta at least another year and a half to come up with new products, refine its features, and solidify its position. 

Apple believes that it can enter late and still win on brand, design, and seamless iPhone integration, the same playbook that worked against the smartwatch incumbents in 2015. However, that means that the company’s first AI glasses should be either as good or better than whatever Meta is shipping at that point. 

In my opinion, the Vision Pro was more of a platform bet than a consumer product, and Ternus’ decision to cancel its successor is an acknowledgment that the strategy didn’t pay off at the pace Apple had hoped. The question isn’t whether redirecting those resources toward smart glasses is the right move; it’s whether Apple is already too late.