Apple’s Vision Pro headset carried a different name for a substantial stretch of its development, according to prototype collector and leaker Kosutami.
In a post on X, Kosutami pointed to an internal software string, “realityprorealityosdev”, as direct evidence that the device was called “Reality Pro” internally before Apple settled on its final branding.
However, the name of the Reality Pro is not something unexpected. The reason is that, according to a report by Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, the first headset from Apple would be released under the name “Apple Reality Pro”.
This report was based on Apple’s application of trademarks a month before for “Reality One”, “Reality Pro” and “Reality Processor”, which were filed via the shell company named Immersive Health Solutions LLC, which is the way Apple has already used in the past to conceal its product names until release from the trademark databases.
What Kosutami discovered is just that the branding became deeply integrated into the code of Apple’s software.
The Reality branding traces back even further than the 2022 filings. In December 2021, a separate shell company called Realityo Systems LLC filed a trademark for “realityOS” after developers had already spotted references to it buried in Apple’s own software and App Store upload logs.
By mid-2023, Apple’s trademark activity shifted again, with filings surfacing for “xrOS”, “xrProOS”, “realityproOS” and “realOS”, tracking the company’s apparent indecision right up to the headset’s public unveiling as Vision Pro at WWDC 2023, with visionOS as its final software name.
Apple reportedly retains its trademark rights to both “Reality Pro” and “Reality One”, a detail that holds significant importance in China, where Huawei has a ten-year licence for the Vision Pro trademark until 2031.
Gurman has said Apple could fall back on the Reality Pro name in markets where the Vision Pro trademark isn’t available to it, keeping the shelved branding as a practical backup rather than pure trivia.
The history of the naming comes to light now that Apple has just laid off about 100 employees of its Vision Products Group, effectively terminating the units responsible for Vision Pro games and immersive video, among other cuts that have affected over 200 employees, including Siri and software workers.
These lay-offs come after news broke out that Apple had cancelled two products of the Vision Pro 2 and a less expensive “Vision Air”, as Apple is now focusing on smart glasses, even though Bloomberg said that Apple is considering a Vision Pro 2 release as late as 2028.
Vision Pro was released in America in February 2024 at $3,499, and with all the efforts now diverted to something else, Reality Pro could be remembered as one of the most memorable failures of Vision Pro.
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