Apple has now scrapped three different Vision Pro headset concepts on the way to its current project, N224. Each one tried to solve the same problem: keeping the headset powerful without making it heavy or expensive.
Bloomberg’s rundown of Apple’s headset history lays out just how many directions the company has tried and abandoned. None of the canceled projects made it past internal testing, but each one shaped what Apple is trying now.
N107 Would Have Paired The Headset With A Mac, And A Home Console Concept Went Even Further
N107 was designed to lean on a Mac or another external device for some of its computing, cutting down on what needed to live inside the headset itself. Apple canceled it and moved on.
An earlier, more extreme version of the same idea imagined a Mac Studio-sized box sitting at home and beaming data wirelessly to the headset. That concept never made it past early planning before Apple’s team dropped it too.
Vision Air And N109 Were Also Scrapped Before N224 Began Testing
Apple also built out N100, referred to internally as Vision Air, which used an external pack to move components away from the user’s head. That project was shelved as well.
N109 took a different approach, a cheaper, lighter Vision Pro built around a less powerful chip. Apple killed that one too, leaving N224 as the project actually in testing today. N224 reportedly spans around four concepts, from a familiar egg-shaped design in plastic, titanium and other metals to a standalone puck that would hold the battery and processor outside the headset, an approach similar to Meta’s latest VR glasses.
Apple Is Now Splitting Its Attention Between N224 And Smart Glasses
Weight remains the core problem, since the current Vision Pro weighs roughly 600 to 800 grams depending on configuration and headband, and Apple has not decided whether an external puck is worth the trade-off of adding a second device to carry.
While N224 stays in testing, Apple is putting more resources into displayless smart glasses built around cameras and AI, with a possible launch as early as the end of 2027. The company is reportedly also developing camera-equipped AirPods and a screenless fitness tracker, alongside leadership changes inside the Vision hardware team.
N224 still has no release date attached to it, while Apple’s smart glasses project already has a rough end-of-2027 target.
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