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Apple Vision Pro Is Apple's New VR Headset
- jmkni 3y agoI'll definitely be in the minority here but I'm not excited by this at all! I'll give it a few years/generations but doing nothing for me. Loving pretty much everything else Apple currently.
- PaulHoule 3y agoThe price endangers it the same way the high price killed the Star Wars Starcruiser at Disneyland. Most of the people who want it won't be able to afford it, the people who can afford it mostly won't want it.
- highfreq 3y agoOn the other hand Vision Pro's price will go down and quality will go up. Apple has the deep pockets to continue to invest until the technology really delivers at a mass market price. This wasn't really there for the labor intensive high-touch Starcruiser experience.
- PaulHoule 3y agoThat’s a good point. Even so I am not sure if we will see electronic prices dropping over time the way they have in the past. Probably the most important scaling in semiconductors was the price coming down from shrink to shrink and that seems to be over. That’s why the 40-series cards from NVIDIA don’t improve on the 30-series for performance per dollar. Apple leads the world in powerful ARM SoC but they make high end parts that sell at high end prices and compete with Meta who is very concerned about selling price and sometimes willing to subsidize hardware in the hope they make it back on services.
- makeitdouble 3y agoI think it kinda goes back to "I'll ignore it for now and wait a few years if it's still around with a reasonable value proposition" And I mean it in the most positive way: if it ever works out Apple will come out with a better headset year over year, and build a community around it, XR will have made it to the mainstream. If it doesn't pan out will have a data point on what fails, and get other products that skirt around these issues while providing compelling features on the parts that matter, we have enough competition to have the concept survive. Either way it's a win, and I salute Apple for jumping in the pool.
- packetlost 3y agoI'd be surprised if we get a gen 3 of this (I bet we'll get a gen 2 to slash cost)
- adastra22 3y agoIt feels like the initial launch of the Apple Watch as a luxury fashion accessory. Good thing they were able to pivot that to a Fitbit competitor. Will they do the same here?
- packetlost 3y agoWhat would they pivot to? I'd love to have a normal glasses style device with some cameras and sensors to give me Iron Man/Cyberpunk-style HUD for notifications and calls, etc.. I just... don't understand what they could pivot to.
- adastra22 3y agoExactly that, I think. My prediction is we'll get a 'Vision Air' which is AR-only, like HoloLens, and priced more competitively. But unlike HoloLens you won't look like a dweeb wearing this at home or around the office. Combined with some sort of killer app for the magic leap style gesture recognition this thing seems to have, and you could have a whole new human-computer interface. Or maybe it dies an early death, like the Apple Newton. :shrug:
- pelagicAustral 3y agoI'm skeptical as well... all this VR/AR hype has yet to deliver something... anything... anything at all... It's been years since I trying a VR headset at a friend's place and I distinctively remember thinking "this is useless... cool, but useless". I have yet to walk into someones place and not see one of these things gathering dust in a corner... Perhaps the only time I actually felt like getting one was when I got hooked into Elite Dangerous, but these days I don't have time for it anyway... so, yeah.
- ryandrake 3y agoI had an O.G. Rift and Elite Dangerous was absolutely awesome on it. But the prep work I had to do to just play a little was insane: 1. Boot to Windows (Mac bootcamp) 2. Microsoft: It's been 6 months since you ran Windows. I need to force an update for 20 minutes! 3. Steam: LOL you need to update me too! 4. Find the device, the motion sensor/cameras in my cabinet, plug them in and position them in the room. 5. Display driver: Barf! Reboot computer. 6. Unplug/replug everything. 7. Oculus: Hahah new drivers, sucker! 8. Launch Elite Dangerous. Oops, somehow it's not in VR mode. Figure out how to change it in graphics settings... By the time I got around to playing, I was already exhausted.
- mikenew 3y agoMy experience is very similar, even still (boot from linux into windows, have updates shoved down my throat, some random thing doesn't work because reasons, etc.) Most of it really feels like unforced errors though. As much as I am not at all excited about a $3500 device that's completely locked into Apple's restricted ecosystem, they are the kind of company to actually pay attention to those things and smooth out all the rough edges. I'm really just hoping it brings more attention and effort into the wider VR ecosystem and we start getting better products and software support.
- bitsandboots 3y agoHad a similar experience with the Rift and it made me buy a different VR headset. The software stack is critical to these devices not being painful or pleasant. Devices that are steamvr native have been so much nicer to use, just plug&pay. I'm assuming Apple isn't going to make their headset SteamVR compatible so I wonder how things will shake out a few years from now - is Apple going to be in their own little world or will existing software really support it?
- jweir 3y agoThere was a bit of staging going on in that demo. Like when the fellow walks up in frame perfectly between two windows and hands the viewer something. Or the FaceTime call where the woman was talking to 3 other people – why weren't they wearing the goggles? But these would be great on an airplane and probably other circumstances. I doubt I will be buying any time soon though.
- throw74775 3y ago> why weren't they wearing the goggles? Vision Pro uses an ML model to present you without the googles if you are using FaceTime.
- SkyPuncher 3y agoThey did a nice slight of hand to make it look more impressive. The first FaceTime demo had actual people. The second FaceTime demo showed the ML model and it lacked multiple people.
- throw74775 3y agoYes - there are definitely questions around how good the ML model will look. To me it wasn’t amazing.
- layer8 3y agoI'm sure that will look super realistic.
- astroalex 3y ago> Or the FaceTime call where the woman was talking to 3 other people – why weren't they wearing the goggles? I wondered about that too, but if you watch the whole announcement, they explain it. They create a 3D avatar of you for FaceTime.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- amatheus 3y agoI would be surprised if it's the minority. Obviously I don't buy every product Apple launches but up to now I could see me using every one of their products, even if I don't think it would make sense buying one because it's too expensive or I don't need it. The Vision Pro however is something I have doubts could be useful even if it works perfectly and despite its price tag.
- hparadiz 3y agoI got a Valve Index 2 months ago for VRChat. Turns out there's a huge music and dance community on VRC that spends a rediculous amount of money on various things to make it more usable. The Index is $1000. Then some people get extra base stations which are $200 a pop. Then if you dance with full body tracking most people get Vive Tracker 3.0 which you need 3 for feet and waist. Add the $2000 gaming desktop I use for powering it and you're already at the price of the Vision Pro. Except the Vision Pro is stand alone and has some really nice quality of life hacks that I haven't seen before in the VR space. Also dancing in a VR rave is a pretty good workout and you get to meet tons of cool people. It sort of self selects for cool tech nerds. So far I've met a ton of amazing people through it.
- mikenew 3y agoThere's a bit of irony there though, in that the most compelling things in VR are from gamers creating awesome things (VR Chat, modding in Beat Saber, etc), and emphatically not from giant companies providing these "experiences" that they're positive everyone will love. As incredible as Apple's hardware looks, you are absolutely not going to have the kind of freedom you have with a piece of Valve hardware connected to your own PC. We'll be lucky if they even allow VR Chat on the platform.
- hparadiz 3y agoSome of the most intense users of the VRC platform are hacker furries so I have zero doubt that someone will figure out how to get it going. They said they are working with Unity in the keynote. It would be weird if they totally blocked VRChat cause it's the top VR app on Steam.
- jrockway 3y agoThe only feature I want in an AR headset is for it to tell me the name of the person I'm talking to. I always forget. But I know the facial recognition database is a huge privacy liability, so it will never happen. As a result, I'm also underwhelmed. I suppose this is good for those people you see walking around texting as they wander into traffic. They might be able to like some Instagram posts AND look both ways before crossing the street. A $3500 headset is cheaper than a $100k spine replacement or whatever. (I just ... stop if I need to text someone while I'm out walking, and do my Internet shitposting when I'm not out and about. But I guess that's only me.)
- danaris 3y ago> But I know the facial recognition database is a huge privacy liability, so it will never happen. That's fairly easily overcome—you just need to have a local facial recognition database, specific to your contacts, rather than querying some centralized one.
- cmpalmer52 3y agoI’m probably in the smaller majority of people who are very excited about it, but still expect it to flop (or at least flounder for a while). I used a Quest 2 as virtual monitors for a week or so of real work and it was uncomfortable and sweaty and I was isolated and had to keyboard and mouse by touch, but the viewing experience was amazing. And I do use my Quest 2 frequently for games and “workouts” and entertainment. So I’m solidly in the market for this. But the main thing is that I want to try it, mostly for the AR. I’ll reserve any fanboy comments until I’ve tried it. Someday, someone is going to get AR/VR right. This isn’t it, but it seems to be moving in the right direction. I don’t have high hopes for free space holographic displays, a la Star Wars or Minority Report, but augmented reality fills the same niche (with many of the same drawbacks and benefits).
- zitsarethecure 3y agoOnce we start seeing celebrities going everywhere with them on at all times I suspect uptake will be huge in the upper/middle class.
- evo_9 3y agoIt's better than I expected so far. I think it's quite revealing that VR was not mentioned once. Also - this paves the way to Mac Laptops (and desktops) without displays, which to me is the big win here.
- davidkuennen 3y agoDoes 24,000,000 pixels in total mean a resolution of ~3464x3464 pixels per eye compared to 2064x2208 of the quest 3?
- twalla 3y agoThe hardware looks beautiful, as is to be expected from Apple - I just don't think the appetite is there for a general purpose productivity headset, the big wins in VR/AR seems to be very specialized and mostly around things like manufacturing and design/engineering instead of just typical office work.
- PaulHoule 3y agoWho knows? It might look affordable if you compare it to the $5000 Pro Display XDR... And you can carry it with you.
- larodi 3y agoI definitely can’t imagine myself with this thing on doing office work. Maybe the adult industry would embrace it though…
- mupuff1234 3y agoFrom the initial pic I thought it looked cool, but then when seeing how bulky it is from the side it looks fairly dorky.
- bobo_legos 3y agoLet's be honest here. If Steve were still alive this thing would never see the light of day in it's current form.
- Upvoter33 3y agoApple introduces a new Scuba Mask. iScuba will seamlessly blend underwater reality and the digital underwater, enabling Apple users everywhere to dive deep while staying connected. iScuba is currently priced at $9999, making it the most affordable digitial Scuba mask produced by Apple in Apple's history.
- tibbydudeza 3y agoNo partnership with Unreal - I wonder why :).
- ErikRedBeard 3y agoyeah esp since this is a new era of communications - but look its got a lot going for it - all day use when plugged in
- crazygringo 3y agoFor those of us not in the know, can you explain?
- tibbydudeza 3y agoThey partned with their competitor Unity for the VR googles. Unreal is owned by Fortnite maker Epic Games - they are not very friendly. A big court case around App Store monopoly.
- crazygringo 3y agoAh thank you!
- mustacheemperor 3y agoThis seems like a device that could kill the monitor. If you're upgrading your workstation to that new Mac Pro, do you get one big 5k display? Or get this headset, and have an array of displays in high resolution with built-in spatial 3D that follow you anywhere and don't take up any physical space.
- qbasic_forever 3y agoZero chance it replaces monitors for everyday people, if for no other reason than folks with long hair will not want to sit around with effectively ski goggles strapped to their head all work day. After a long day of work you'll have a ring around your face and totally messed up hair... that will not fly with people.
- rasz 3y agoAnd who will see this messed up hair at night? The whole point is implementing 2009 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogates in real life.
- rtkwe 3y agoThe eternal issue with AR monitors is you need many multiples of the monitor resolution you're trying to imitate in the goggle display. It's doable but quite expensive
- addisonl 3y agoI’d buy a nice curved monitor for $1k, save $2.5k and enjoy not having a ski mask hanging off my face for 8 hours a day.
- steve76 3y ago[dead]
- Animats 3y ago> This seems like a device that could kill the monitor. No, this screenless laptop [1] is a device that could kill the monitor. Conventional keyboard, AR goggles for the monitor. This Apple headgear is intended to kill the smartphone, but the hardware isn't there yet. As Carmack said after leaving Oculus, the headgear needs to get down to swim goggle size to get any traction, and down to eyeglass size to become pervasive. This thing is bulkier than expected. Since it's tethered to a box on your belt, it's surprising that more of the electronics isn't down with the battery. Others are shipping smaller, lighter headgear. You'd expect something like this [2] from Apple. Despite this, we'll probably see iBorgs on University Avenue in Palo Alto within days after this ships. [1] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/this-ar-laptop-promises-a-100-inch-virtual-screen-but-limits-you-to-web-app https://www.tomshardware.com/news/this-ar-laptop-promises-a-... [2] https://inmoglass.com/ https://inmoglass.com/
- xNeil 3y agoI don't really think Zuck and Meta are any competition for this - will this end Meta's AR/VR prospects?
- andsoitis 3y agoHere's a demo: https://twitter.com/ijustine/status/1665787127815077888 https://twitter.com/ijustine/status/1665787127815077888
- georgeburdell 3y agoI’m interested in it to replace my monitors at work and home, that’s about it. Not only would it allow for more screen space, but (I think?) it would allow my eyes to focus at infinity while working
- mrweasel 3y ago> I’m interested in it to replace my monitors at work and home You want to replace your monitors, with a VR headset? What's the appeal? The cost see very high for something that has no apparent use case, I mean, Disney+ ... that's the best use they can come up with.
- cmpalmer52 3y agoI did this for a while with my Quest 2. Floating in space on an asteroid while my main screen is bigger (virtually) than an IMAX screen and two other monitors float on either side plus tool windows I could grab and move around was awesome. Just the headset was heavy and sweaty after a while and there was no AR pass thru, so I couldn’t see my keyboard and mouse or find my coffee cup. This looks like a step forward in solving all those problems.
- singingboyo 3y agoI mean, I'd love to just for the space savings alone. Multiple monitors take up quite a bit of space. If I could repurpose the space for other things without losing functionality that'd be great. I don't think this is there yet. I'd need to see performance data, and I'd really prefer SteamVR integration (though I could probably reduce a PC+headset to a pretty small if necessary). But it's a step in that direction, and even if it's not necessarily Apple that gets there I think we will see that kind of device in the future.
- canucker2016 3y agoThe Ars live blog mentioned there seemed to be a battery tether, but I didn't see any mention about battery life, so I don't know how long you'd be able to use Vision Pro before you'd have to swap batteries/recharge.
- canucker2016 3y agostarts at US$3499, available early next year...
- FinnKuhn 3y agoThis seems very promising by being based on already existing experiences (support for iPhone and iPad Apps). Considering all the other features the price of 3499$ doesn't seem to crazy, especially because it can replace all of your monitors, TV and more while also enabling entirely new experiences for basically the same price.
- salad-tycoon 3y agoReplace all that said for…one… person. It’s cool. I’d rather buy something else.
- xenolith234 3y agoDo we know it's just for one person, and that Optic ID can't be used to authenticate multiple users?
- mikenew 3y agoIncredibly impressive hardware, but Apple's distaste for games is almost comical. $3500 headset that plays shitty 2d arcade games with a controller.
- throw74775 3y agoUnity is 3D
- akmarinov 3y agoI guess they’re hoping the game port stuff they also introduced today would bring some games over
- xNeil 3y agoIt's priced at $3499 = seems too expensive for a consumer device (maybe)?
- Jagerbizzle 3y agoStarts at $3499 and is available early 2024.
- stuff4ben 3y agoOoof, $3499 is a bit much to swallow. I would have considered if it were under $2k. Still, I might go for it considering how amazing it is.
- Octoth0rpe 3y agoWell, they specifically are calling this the Vision _Pro_. Presumably there'll be a non-pro version at some point (Vision Air? etc) that will address a wider audience.
- roesel 3y ago3500 is way too much when trying to introduce a new platform. I guess that's the cost of the display (two apple watches) and the chips (a Macbook and a half). But still.
- dan1234 3y agoAgreed. I’d like to have seen Apple use some of their massive cash warchest to subsidise the platform until it’s on its feet.
- throw74775 3y agoSeems like it’s already on its feet.
- aobdev 3y agoI agree that it's way more expensive than I expected, but calling the displays "two apple watches" is really understating how much resolution you're getting. By like two orders of magnitude.
- rafamvc 3y agoThe price can always go down, but it is hard to go up. The high price and the next year date means they don't want to sell a whole lot of it. They probably need more time to improve it. If I had to bet between Meta and Apple getting it right first, I'd probably bet on Meta now, with apple playing catchup as they usually do, and really well. But so far, if Metaverse was a mistake, this is an even larger mistake.
- spaceman_2020 3y agoIf these end up being closed systems, Apple will likely win the race. They'll just sell it better and they'll integrate it way better with all their existing hardware. The network effect will ensure that this is pretty much what people end up buying.
- llm_nerd 3y agoIt's about 120x the resolution of an Apple Watch. The displays themselves -- by far the most critical, make or break element of such a device -- are multiple generations beyond anything else. Honestly perplexed why this has seen multiple downvotes. The device features 23 million pixels, or 3x 4K screens. That's 3X the Sony VR2. Over 2X the Vive Pro 2. And of course it's 120x the resolution of an Apple Watch Series 7. The angular resolution approaches the limits of the human eye.
- xNeil 3y agoIt's priced at $3499 - seems too expensive for a consumer device (maybe)?
- mfalcao 3y agoStarts at $3499... I don't think this will be successful.
- dsaavy 3y agoWondering how this is going to change the remote working experience. If the price point starts coming down, I can see this as really useful for digital "in-person" meetings that keep people more engaged than a Zoom call. Intrigued to test this device out to see if it's really much different from the typical VR experiences.
- WillPostForFood 3y agoIt is like a deal killer for me that in meetings that you get swapped for a creepy uncanny valley version of yourself. The hardware seemed amazing, but the software was disappointing. https://www.youtube.com/live/GYkq9Rgoj8E?feature=share&t=6935 https://www.youtube.com/live/GYkq9Rgoj8E?feature=share&t=693...
- WillPostForFood 3y agoVideo timing has changed: https://www.youtube.com/live/GYkq9Rgoj8E?feature=share&t=6764 https://www.youtube.com/live/GYkq9Rgoj8E?feature=share&t=676...
- underdeserver 3y agoLooks amazing, but I'm not having anything on my face at my kid's fourth birthday.
- LexGray 3y agoYou say that now, but bulky embarrassing camcorders at kids birthdays were a major thing in their day. Perhaps there will be some livestream type features to share the birthday with grandparents across the country in 3D.
- underdeserver 3y agoYep. Mine were filmed with one of these. But dad would film for a few minutes, put it down, smile and wave, hand it to mom. Having something strapped to your face is a different beast.
- glinkot 3y agoI dare say one of the next iphones will introduce the 3d video/photo capture capability. Then you could capture with the phone and view it later on the headset.
- endisneigh 3y agoWhen this is $1000 I will sell my monitors and buy this instead. It’s a no brainer. In fact at $1000 why would you even bother with an iPad?
- julianh65 3y ago3500$ is pricey but I'm a bit more disappointed at the timeline, was really eager to try it out
- devteambravo 3y agoThis looks like a device one would buy to be able to visit SF w/o seeing the homeless.
- fidotron 3y agoThe killer app will be how it can blur out things you don't want to see in reality while walking around. Blinkers for humans.
- lowbloodsugar 3y agoIf it can make London sunny all year round, I'm in.
- SpacePortKnight 3y agoThis looks amazing and what I am most excited about is that I will actually be able to physically test it thanks to Apple Stores. Maybe Quest Pro is amazing but I don't even know where (if) I can experience it.
- pierre 3y agoIn the meta store :) Went there, was the only customer for the hour of demo I had.
- neighborlynook 3y agoSo their 3d avatars seem really cool. Its kinda like an Apple approved DeepFake of yourself.
- simonbarker87 3y agoIf I can code with essentially infinite screen space with the full power and adaptability of my Mac then I’m excited. The price is too much to just go and have a go for me but it will come down, the MB Air was extremely expensive for what it was from memory and now it’s the intro product.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- xNeil 3y agoI'm thinking this would have been an incredible idea during the pandemic - don't get me wrong, it's still a great idea. I just think the pandemic use case simply made too much sense - they really could have changed remote work and quaranting forever.
- KingMachiavelli 3y agoPretty cool to see a major company release an completely new product line; the whole portable/phone market has been pretty slow the last few years. This doesn't really compete with anything that already exist - the closest I think is the Simula One which hasn't shipped yet. Hopefully, this will spur more AR/VR development and open-source/open-computing options will catch up.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lallysingh 3y agoI suppose that later revisions will have smaller bezels and more of that face screen for other people to see. Eventually it'll look like you're wearing metal-framed safety googles. Maybe rose gold. I'm glad to see Unity at the start, and a theatre experience. That'll do gaming and media. But at work, without a keyboard solution, I think it's stuck until that gets figured out.
- syspec 3y agoThe commercial they showed at the end showed the person using a regular bluetooth keyboard with the device.
- lallysingh 3y agoOh! I missed that! Thanks.
- richardw 3y agoI thought it used the Apple keyboard? Or you could use your Mac with it.
- Animats 3y agoAh, the iBorg is finally out. How soon will we see people walking around Silicon Valley wearing this thing? The concept is intended for full time wear, although with a 2-hour battery life and rather bulky headgear, the hardware isn't ready. The interesting part is the input side. It uses voice, eye tracking, and cameras watching the user's hands rather than a hand controller. Apple has advanced the user interface again.
- gfody 3y agoiGargoyle
- Animats 3y agoYou're right, of course, but only the people who really read "Snow Crash" will get it. “Gargoyles represent the embarrassing side of the Central Intelligence Corporation. Instead of using laptops, they wear their computers on their bodies, broken up into separate modules that hang on the waist, on the back, on the headset. They serve as human surveillance devices, recording everything that happens around them. Nothing looks stupider; these getups are the modern-day equivalent of the slide-rule scabbard or the calculator pouch on the belt, marking the user as belonging to a class that is at once above and far below human society. They are a boon to Hiro because they embody the worst stereotype of the CIC stringer. They draw all the attention. The payoff for this self-imposed ostracism is that you can be in the Metaverse all the time, and gather intelligence all the time.”
- WillPostForFood 3y agoApple has advanced the user interface again. Remains to be seen. Even if it is 100% accurate in tracking, the lack of physical feedback on inputs is a big tradeoff.
- TrainedMonkey 3y agoI don't know how big the tradeoff is. AFAIK the modern narrative is - you need physical buttons for tactile feedback. The story generally goes - you are focused on something else like looking at screen while typing on the keyboard or changing volume/temperature while driving. A less common element would be pressing a button in the dark elevator... you really want to see it light up or elevator start moving. We've grew up to expect this... but how much tactile feedback do you get from a thought occurring or turning your head? Given that headset literally controls your vision I think it might be possible to create visual effects that feel as satisfying as a click... Having said that, human experience OS is weird and real world testing is needed.
- canuckintime 3y agoI’m very surprised there was no Fitness+ app for Apple Vision Pro mentioned at all. The Mindfulness app even got quick reveal but no exercise feature? That’s been the most sticky feature for Quest 2/Pro for me (perhaps because their screens aren’t sharp and clear even for work)
- r053bud 3y agoIt's because you have to wear a battery pack
- operatingthetan 3y agoIf a $300-400 Oculus falls off your head, who cares, but $3500? Just nope.
- glebd 3y agoYou wouldn't want to get your expensive Vision Pro all sweaty now, would you
- canuckintime 3y agoBut it should be sweat resistant, no? All the top VR games involve movement. If Apple really is going to treat the headset’s gaming story as connect a PlayStation controller and play Apple Arcade games on a virtual screen I’ll be disappointed
- icpmacdo 3y agoFor reference you can refer to the original airpod's announcement thread to see how Hacker News comments on new products look in hindsight https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12446094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12446094
- melevittfl 3y agoOr when the original iPod was released.
- photonerd 3y ago[flagged]
- nelsonmarcos 3y agoMan, it's good to know I am not alone.
- 727564797069706 3y agoApple has made another revolutionary, "shut up and take my money!" product. Sure, it'll take some time to get our hands on it and the platform to establish itself, but I'm sure that if anyone can pull it off, then it's Apple. And I'm confident that they can pull it off! Wonderful WWDC, reminds the older times where surprising announcements blew my socks off (almost) yearly!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- stuff4ben 3y agoKinda blows away whatever it was that Zuck and Meta were doing. This is game-changing and so much more than VR.
- rorads 3y agoThey've absolutely blown Meta out of the water on their value proposition. They've started with: here's how you would use this device to round off all the rough edges of work / travel / productivity etc. Whereas Meta: why don't you try to replicate all the most meaningful human interactions here with Mark. On price: it's a lot, but as they say toward the end: relative to a home entertainment system with a powerful screen + surround sound, it's less ridiculous, plus it's portable. My prediction: people who have the money to spare will buy it in very good numbers. In fact, I don't think they'll be able to meet demand. If you're already the kind of person who takes flights a lot for work, and who would consider upgrading to the latest Macbook Pro, it will be appealing.
- klabb3 3y ago> They've absolutely blown Meta out of the water on their value proposition. Agreed. But this is because Apple can leverage their existing ecosystem. They’re clearly leaning into that heavily, which is an excellent strategy. Zuck has no existing platform, so they need to reinvent 1p experiences (which feels like talking to Zuck), or rely on 3p devs (that are awkwardly constrained by lack of content and the app-silo model). > relative to a home entertainment system with a powerful screen + surround sound, it's less ridiculous This was a lie, and they knew it. A headset can only be used by one person at a time, and I suspect sharing it with others will suck because of the single iCloud account hegemony (this has been a huge problem with iPad already). Home entertainment systems is not targeting overpaid lonely tech workers, it’s for family and friends in the same space. Headsets are 100% isolating yourself from others and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. So this is a solo device for now. > If you're already the kind of person who takes flights a lot for work, and who would consider upgrading to the latest Macbook Pro, it will be appealing. I don’t doubt that there are enough tech enthusiasts to saturate demand, but I also don’t think an iOS-like platform is enough, currently, to replace Mac Pro use cases. I think if this was a pro workstation replacer they would have sold that story heavily. Apple has struggled for years to roll out sandboxed apps on macOS but most “pro” apps are still stragglers. But why bother? They make much more $ on the iPhones anyway.
- ozten 3y ago
- jmyeet 3y agoThis will be a rare Apple L. I'm calling it. The last major new product was the Apple Watch. The launch strategy for that was flawed. Many may have forgotten it was launched as a luxury product including a $10,000 version (which was ridiculous). This was when the former Burberry CEO was (briefly) at the helm of Apple Retail. From the 2nd generation it pivoted to health and fitness, which has a market. But the market is still tiny. I'd still call it an eventual success. But nobody wants VR. Like, literally nobody. It is and will remain a niche, at this or any other price point. Many see it as a stepping stone to AR. I remain skeptical that AR will be technically possible at all. If it is it will takes years if not decades for the tech to get there and there are fundamental problems (eg dealing with focus, rendering true blacks). It's one of these things that is a popular idea in sci-fi without considering the barriers. I can actually see Apple pulling this within a few years, if it even takes that long. Maybe they'll hang onto it for the promise of AR but I'm skeptical.
- shmoogy 3y agoI'm sorry, are you calling the Apple Watch, a $70 billion annual revenue sector of their business a failure? It's hard to tell at this point if this will be a success - even with their financing options, $3500 is a big price, especially a first gen product. They have definitely taken an existing market (Oculus - that has sold as much as modern consoles) and ramped up the quality of it, while polishing the UI/UX. I am very excited to see where this goes in 3 years. e: I guess eventual success isn't quite failure - but I dont think I would frame it the way you did, even with the slight stumbles.
- jmyeet 3y ago> are you calling the Apple Watch, a $70 billion annual revenue sector of their business a failure? First, where did you get $70 billion from? I see estimates of 40M Apple Watches sold per year. It starts at $249. I imagine the average selling price is pretty close to that. Let's assume $300. So that's a $12 billion business? And no, I didn't call it a "failure". I called it a niche, which it is. To compare Apple sold 225M iPhones (at a significantly higher ASP) in 2022.
- 3y ago
- ragle 3y ago* $3500 price tag * 2D / "Arcade" games support (lol) I'm a buyer 3-4 generations in if price comes down significantly and I can replace my monitors with it. The seamless use with a mac for work will be really nice - but isn't worth $3500 to me for a gen 1 device / experience. For now, I'm probably just going to get a Quest 3 when it drops this September. In terms of a virtual work environment - immersed is _almost_ there on a Quest 2. Maybe Quest 3 will be the ticket to a compelling experience. If not, well... I still have my library of dozens of VR games to make it worth $600 (or w/e). Still, excited to see what Apple does with this platform over the next five or so years. The "macbook air" version of this a few years down the road will probably be more my speed!
- vkoskiv 3y agoWill it let me block people, like in Black Mirror?
- bitsandboots 3y ago"Apple's new VR Headset" not so much. It seems very much to be an AR headset. As a person who uses VR daily, I was curious if it would move VR forward, but it seems unrelated. Maybe one day they'll address tracking of peripherals such as is used for full body tracking and gaming, but for now it looks like just a virtual desktop & movie platform, which is fine since the competition doesn't do those particularly well, but time will tell if the difference is groundbreaking or just iterative. I do dream of a day when I don't need a monitor anymore, but unless their specs are out if this world, we're probably at least 5 years away.
- photonerd 3y agoYou probably should watch the presentation video, it’s absolutely both AR AND VR, it’s just Apple are (quite rightly) betting that the real user interest lies in the AR side of things. Switching to VR progressively with the dial is genius UI design imo
- 10xDev 3y agoIf the main complaint here is the price, then Apple has once again succeeded with their marketing.
- rafamvc 3y agoWill they have a left hand version?
- zigh 3y agoAny one know how the finger gesture control works? I wonder how accurate it would be. That UI seems to be a big advancement compare to other VR devices.
- spaceman_2020 3y agoThe announcement video ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX9qSaGXFyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX9qSaGXFyg They absolutely nailed the marketing. Made the product feel like a family-friendly do-it-all device. Facebook needs to learn how to sell from Apple.
- genjii931 3y agoApple's biggest mistake in years. This thing is DOA.