Follow the Money Friday: Apple's Spatial Computing Bet Hits the P&L
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Hundreds of layoffs across Siri and Vision Pro teams suggest Cupertino is pivoting away from expensive hardware experiments that failed to scale.
OPINION: Let's call this what it is. When a company as cash-rich as Apple starts chopping hundreds of heads from its most touted 'future of computing' projects, it isn't a strategic refinement. It's a quiet admission that the P&L for these bets isn't adding up. The Vision Pro was pitched as the dawn of spatial computing, but the reality is a $3,499 price tag and a product that has struggled to find a mass-market foothold.
According to reporting from Bloomberg, Apple is cutting more than 200 positions. The carnage is concentrated in two primary areas: the Vision Pro and Siri. TechCrunch reports that roughly 100 of those cuts hit the Vision Pro team, while another 100 impacted the Siri team and a group called Intelligent Systems Experience, which focuses on integrating AI into devices.
If you look at the specifics provided by The Verge, the retreat from the Vision Pro ecosystem is surgical. Bloomberg reports that Apple is "largely shutting down" a gaming team dedicated to the headset and "reducing the size" of the team responsible for creating immersive content. This follows a series of mixed signals regarding the hardware's roadmap; while Bloomberg reported in May that a slimmer, lighter successor to the M5-chipped Vision Pro was in the works, a subsequent report indicated Apple suspended work with Samsung Display on a display for a lower-cost, entry-level XR device.
Cupertino's official line, provided in a statement to Bloomberg, is that the company is looking "to evolve our business to deliver the best experiences for our users." They noted that while some roles are being eliminated, new roles will be created.
But the financial pressure is evident. TechCrunch notes that Apple is currently navigating a "bumpy period of transition." The company is fighting to secure its standing in the AI race while simultaneously dealing with a memory shortage driven by the AI buildout, which has inflated production costs for flagship products. To offset these costs, Apple raised prices on iPads and Macs earlier this summer and recently rolled out a leasing plan for its major hardware to attract a wider customer base.
As for the software side, the revamped, AI-powered Siri announced at this year's WWDC is slated for a public beta later this year, per The Verge. Meanwhile, Apple is reportedly eyeing a different hardware play: smart glasses. Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to announce these at WWDC in 2027, with a launch by the end of that year—likely a reaction to the success of Meta's smart glasses.
Between the layoffs and the ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI for alleged trade theft, Apple is clearly reshuffling its deck. The goal is to pivot toward newer AI efforts and devices, but the cost of the Vision Pro experiment is now being written off in human capital.