Apple removing ‘Pro’ label from Apple Vision mentions in latest iOS 17 beta

January 9, 2024

2 min read

After being announced in June last year at WWDC 2023, Apple Vision Pro will hit stores next month. At first, the name chosen by Apple puzzled some people since a non-Pro Apple Vision has never been announced. But it seems that the company wants to be ready for when that happens someday, as it has been removing the “Pro” label from Apple Vision mentions in the latest beta of iOS 17.

iOS is ready for a non-Pro Apple Vision

As noticed by 9to5Mac in the iOS 17.3 beta 2 codes, several strings that mentioned Apple Vision Pro have been updated with just “Apple Vision” instead. For example, strings related to the App Store previously read “Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro Apps”. Now, the same string reads “Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Apps”.

Of course, this doesn’t mean much at this point, but it does show that Apple wants to be ready for when it decides to announce a cheaper version of the Apple Vision Pro. On Apple’s website, the navigation tab also lists the product as “Vision” instead of Vision Pro.

Even before the official announcement of the Apple Vision Pro, there were rumors that Apple was also working on a less expensive version since the Pro version starts at $3,499. It’s still unclear how exactly these two versions will differ, but potentially the cheaper Apple Vision will use less premium materials and won’t have some features like EyeSight.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company is aiming for a price point in the range of $1,500 to $2,500 for this less expensive model. However, given that Apple Vision Pro is only now being launched in the US and will only arrive in a few other countries by the end of the year, a more affordable Apple Vision is unlikely to be introduced before 2025 at the earliest.