Posted on 08/26/2026 8:55:00 PM PDT by algore
Apple is laying off 147 employees across its Silicon Valley offices – reportedly mostly software engineers working on augmented reality products – a fresh blow to the company's struggling virtual reality ambitions.
The cuts come just weeks before Apple is expected to unveil its next generation of iPhones, including the highly anticipated iPhone 18 lineup and its first foldable iPhone.
The Vision Pro goggles have struggled to attract mainstream consumers, thanks to its high price tag, hefty weight and limited selection of apps and experiences, all of which make it a difficult sell.
The headset's launch in San Francisco in February 2024 provided an early glimpse of the problem, with reports suggesting Apple employees and media representatives appeared to outnumber customers at the company's flagship store.
Apple later attempted to breathe new life into the product with an updated M5 Vision Pro, but the refresh has failed to generate the kind of demand the company had hoped for. According to a WARN filing released Tuesday, 147 employees across three Apple offices in the Silicon Valley area are set to lose their jobs.
The layoffs include 79 workers at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, along with 40 employees at one Sunnyvale office and another 28 at a second Sunnyvale location.
Most of those being cut are software engineers, while the Sunnyvale offices have been particularly affected by layoffs involving workers developing augmented and virtual reality products.
The job losses are scheduled to begin October 19.
The cuts are the latest sign that Apple's expensive push into so-called spatial computing, the technology behind virtual reality goggles, has struggled to gain traction since the company launched the Vision Pro in 2024.
Priced at a staggering $3,499, the headset was unveiled with enormous fanfare as Apple's biggest new product category in years.
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Me either. Everything they have is seriously more expensive than Android phones. The last phone I got was $50. No way, I am paying $500 for a phone, much less over $3000.
I used to use the cheap pay as you go phones, but they would fail or be unreliable. I signed up for CC and bought a Samsung phone for $200. Everything works great with them. They are on AT&T Towers.
Have you seen the women AI can produce?????
“AI” doesn’t produce women. It produces pixels on a screen. Pixels on a screen aren’t women. Spankin’ yer monkey while looking at pixels on a screen is NOT a substitute for reality.
I used tracfones for 5 years and never had a problem with them. I finally changed when I needed to have a smartphone. I have been using the same phone now for 6 years and will continue to do so till it dies.
I think people that change phones every six months are idiots but it’s their money...
You have a way with words.
😎
“...while looking at pixels on a screen is NOT a substitute for reality.”
True, but it is a substitute for child support and alimony.
We use 2 Samsung phones on tracfone. They are on Verizon. The phones were $150.00 each
toys selling at $3500 are, by definition, going to have a very limited consumer audience
perhaps that’s Apple’s fundamental problem with this product line
find a way to lower production costs (more robotics at the Communist China slave labor factories?) and a much more “accessible” market price point (maybe $350? or?) and chances are the toy will sell
I HAVE A LANDLINE & ATT SLIMLINE PHONE-—COST ME $20
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