2026 Kicks Off: Vision Pro Sales Collapse Headlines, Meta Ray-Ban Delayed, CES XR Preview

Apple Vision Pro Sales Collapse — Only 45,000 Units in Q4 2025

The Guardian and The Register both reported this week that Apple Vision Pro sold approximately 45,000 units in Q4 2025 — the crucial holiday quarter. Apple reportedly cut its Vision Pro marketing budget by as much as 95% and halted production expansion.

• Q4 2025 units: ~45,000 (vs. ~200,000 in Q4 2024)
• Production pace slowed dramatically
• Lower-cost Vision headset (~$2,000) targeted for H2 2026
• Apple pivot toward AI smart glasses gaining analyst credence

Meta Ray-Ban Display Pauses International Expansion

Meta announced it is pausing the planned international rollout of Ray-Ban Display glasses (to UK, France, Italy, Canada) due to supply constraints and unprecedented U.S. demand. The company confirmed the international launch will resume 'when supply allows' — now expected Q2 2026.

CES 2026 Opens This Week

CES 2026 opens January 7 in Las Vegas. XR announcements are expected from XREAL (Project Aura + 1S), Samsung Display (OLEDoS demos), RayNeo, Snap (development hardware), and multiple ODMs. Check back next week for full CES XR recap.

Apple M5 Vision Pro Confirmed in Circulation

Apple's October 2025 launch of the Vision Pro with M5 chip (featuring improved performance and 120Hz support) shipped to first buyers, with reviews now widely published. The consensus: M5 makes the hardware excellent. The app library and price tag remain the barriers to adoption.

Meta Horizon OS Gets Neural Band Writing Feature

Meta rolled out handwriting input via the Neural Band as an early access feature for Ray-Ban Display this week. Users can now compose messages by writing with their index finger — a spatial computing input paradigm previously only theorized.

XR Industry 2025 Recap — $4.2B Invested

Road to VR's 2025 year-in-review cited $4.2B in total XR industry investment across hardware, software, and platform plays. The top categories: smart glasses hardware (38%), enterprise software (29%), and spatial computing platforms (18%). Notable 2025 rounds: Magic Leap enterprise pivot funding, XREAL pre-Aura round, and multiple medical XR plays.

Apple Pivoting Vision Pro Narrative to Enterprise

With consumer sales disappointing, Apple is accelerating its enterprise messaging for Vision Pro. New enterprise partnerships with SAP, PTC (Vuforia), and multiple Fortune 500 manufacturers have been announced. The M5 chip's compute advantage over Quest Pro makes Vision Pro the premium choice for industrial AR.

CES 2026 — January 7-10, Las Vegas

CES 2026 opens January 7 at Las Vegas Convention Center. XR pavilion doubles in size vs. 2025. Confirmed XR exhibitors: XREAL, Samsung Display, Goertek, RayNeo, Lumus, Snap Labs. Meta is not exhibiting but may make announcements alongside show.

SPIE AR/VR/MR 2026 — January 25-30, San Francisco

SPIE's annual AR/VR/MR conference runs January 25-30 in San Francisco. 240+ technical papers, including Samsung Display's 5000 PPI OLEDoS presentation and new waveguide optics research from European labs.

Road to VR's 2025 Year in Review

Road to VR published its definitive XR Year in Review on January 2, 2026. The piece identified Android XR platform launch, XREAL Aura preview, and Meta Ray-Ban Display as the three biggest stories of 2025. The article became the most-read XR editorial of the week with 280K pageviews in 48 hours.