4 ms·

Interesting thoughts. I don't wholly disagree. You are right that the maturity of solid-state drives and multi-touch displays played a big role in the timing of

Interesting thoughts. I don't wholly disagree. You are right that the maturity of solid-state drives and multi-touch displays played a big role in the timing of new Apple products in the past. Though, I could point to VR and Electric Vehicles as just-mature technologies where Apple could have made a big investment. How excited would people be if Apple released an electric car... or just bought Tesla.

oddevan 10y ago
I know Tim Cook has mentioned VR as something "interesting" in the recent past, so they may be waiting for it to become a little more mainstream.
- monk_e_boy 10y ago
  Amazing new graphics cards from Nvidia, Apple have all the bits to make a nice VR headset and laptop / ipad that will drive it. I'm surprised they haven't dropped any hints yet. So, they've thought it through and decided now is not the time... why? Why not get in there while Playstation is getting in there. I guess they aren't really a games company, yet the iPhone and iPad are both great for casual games. So maybe that's not the reason. Could be that there is something better in the pipeline (hololens) or that VR isn't consumer ready yet.
  - erikpukinskis 10y ago
    There's no way Apple would make a VR headset tethered to another device. To be on-brand it has to be elegant, which means all-in-one. It probably needs a new OS... certainly none of the UI from iOS can be reused, and it needs VR-specific heat and power optimizations, probably with a new low level graphics toolkit. From Tim Cook's statement it seems pretty clear that they're going to wait until they can do AR glasses, which also fits their anti-nerd brand strategy. AR is more social, more human. Although when the standalone Google/Oculus headsets hit next year I suspect people will be surprised how well they sell. The mobile VR app ecosystem should hit puberty around then. Assuming Oculus/Google can hit a $600 price point I think we'll see an iPod-like growth curve in that category, which would lure Apple into the market for sure.
    - petra 10y ago
      Isn't AR less immersive, less good as means of escapism ? And less "Addictive" ? and that means VR will have a larger market ?
      - icebraining 10y ago
        Immersion is nice for "experiences", but AR has the potential to be used all day, just like smartphones. Besides, they'll eventually converge.
      - flogic 10y ago
        The problem is that while potentially more immersive, VR is more exclusionary. By definition it's not an experience that shares well with meatspace. So it's easy to cut off and be cut off from other people in the same room. That's fine for a teenager in their room but not so much someone living with a significant other or children.
nilkn 10y ago
VR is at that "just mature" cusp for video games, but not for general computing interfaces. I believe that's why Apple hasn't jumped in yet. They don't want to be a video game company like Steam or Oculus. They want to create a completely new general computing UI, and VR just isn't ready for that yet, nor is AR.
- erikpukinskis 10y ago
  Positional tracking plus something like Leap Motion on a mobile headset will get us there. We're just a year or so out from that yet.
- Razengan 10y ago
  Personally I think/hope that the next "magic" thing will be practical and affordable hologram projectors/volumetric displays a la R2D2 (but of course better.)
hiringmanager 10y ago
Apple has made a big investment in both VR and electric vehicles. Tim Cook has spoken publicly- really rare- about the preference for AR, so he's already positioning the companies approach. This tells me that they have a compelling solution that is being refined. (who knows when it will hit the market). It looks like they are still working out the compelling solution to electric vehicles and so there's no reason to talk about it before they have a product ready.
- m1sta_ 10y ago
  My best is that AR/CV and conversational UI will be the next big things.
amelius 10y ago
> How excited would people be if Apple released an electric car... If the car looks just as clunky as the Apple watch, I think people will not be very excited.
- bhandziuk 10y ago
  Apple would likely claim they invented the electric car, too.

oddevan 10y ago

I know Tim Cook has mentioned VR as something "interesting" in the recent past, so they may be waiting for it to become a little more mainstream.

monk_e_boy 10y ago
Amazing new graphics cards from Nvidia, Apple have all the bits to make a nice VR headset and laptop / ipad that will drive it. I'm surprised they haven't dropped any hints yet. So, they've thought it through and decided now is not the time... why? Why not get in there while Playstation is getting in there. I guess they aren't really a games company, yet the iPhone and iPad are both great for casual games. So maybe that's not the reason. Could be that there is something better in the pipeline (hololens) or that VR isn't consumer ready yet.
- erikpukinskis 10y ago
  There's no way Apple would make a VR headset tethered to another device. To be on-brand it has to be elegant, which means all-in-one. It probably needs a new OS... certainly none of the UI from iOS can be reused, and it needs VR-specific heat and power optimizations, probably with a new low level graphics toolkit. From Tim Cook's statement it seems pretty clear that they're going to wait until they can do AR glasses, which also fits their anti-nerd brand strategy. AR is more social, more human. Although when the standalone Google/Oculus headsets hit next year I suspect people will be surprised how well they sell. The mobile VR app ecosystem should hit puberty around then. Assuming Oculus/Google can hit a $600 price point I think we'll see an iPod-like growth curve in that category, which would lure Apple into the market for sure.
  - petra 10y ago
    Isn't AR less immersive, less good as means of escapism ? And less "Addictive" ? and that means VR will have a larger market ?
    - icebraining 10y ago
      Immersion is nice for "experiences", but AR has the potential to be used all day, just like smartphones. Besides, they'll eventually converge.
    - flogic 10y ago
      The problem is that while potentially more immersive, VR is more exclusionary. By definition it's not an experience that shares well with meatspace. So it's easy to cut off and be cut off from other people in the same room. That's fine for a teenager in their room but not so much someone living with a significant other or children.

nilkn 10y ago

VR is at that "just mature" cusp for video games, but not for general computing interfaces. I believe that's why Apple hasn't jumped in yet. They don't want to be a video game company like Steam or Oculus. They want to create a completely new general computing UI, and VR just isn't ready for that yet, nor is AR.

erikpukinskis 10y ago
Positional tracking plus something like Leap Motion on a mobile headset will get us there. We're just a year or so out from that yet.
Razengan 10y ago
Personally I think/hope that the next "magic" thing will be practical and affordable hologram projectors/volumetric displays a la R2D2 (but of course better.)

hiringmanager 10y ago

Apple has made a big investment in both VR and electric vehicles. Tim Cook has spoken publicly- really rare- about the preference for AR, so he's already positioning the companies approach. This tells me that they have a compelling solution that is being refined. (who knows when it will hit the market). It looks like they are still working out the compelling solution to electric vehicles and so there's no reason to talk about it before they have a product ready.

m1sta_ 10y ago
My best is that AR/CV and conversational UI will be the next big things.

amelius 10y ago

> How excited would people be if Apple released an electric car... If the car looks just as clunky as the Apple watch, I think people will not be very excited.

bhandziuk 10y ago
Apple would likely claim they invented the electric car, too.