6 ms·

The last time Apple introduced a new general purpose computing device was the iPad, 14 years ago. This one just doesn’t feel as big. When the iPad was introduc

by pavlov 3y ago

The last time Apple introduced a new general purpose computing device was the iPad, 14 years ago. This one just doesn’t feel as big. When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. Those are exactly the weak points of the Vision Pro: it’s very expensive and very heavy, according to reports. The hands-on sessions that Apple gave to journalists earlier this week seemed a bit underwhelming. The reporter for the Verge wrote that it feels like the Quest, but with higher resolution. That’s a worrying sign! Imagine if the first hands-on of the iPhone had been “it’s like a BlackBerry but with better DPI screen.” Of course Apple is usually very good at consistently evolving their platforms. Maybe the non-Pro model will be something else.

ynniv 3y ago
No wireless? Less space than a Nomad? Lame Historically, reviews of Apple products based on their specs have aged poorly.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- scarface_74 3y ago
  I got one better https://512pixels.net/2009/01/early-macintosh-reviews-show-dvorak-clueless-even-in-1984/ https://512pixels.net/2009/01/early-macintosh-reviews-show-d... John Dvorak > Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    Given that at least 2 companies (including Microsoft) were already shipping mice for IBM PCs by 1984, and there were various pointing devices on engineering workstations, it seems like Dvorak was mostly just in his controversial mode.
  - ch_sm 3y ago
    John Dvorak is golden claim-chowder. So influential yet so wrong.
nathancahill 3y ago
Saving this comment for 10 years from now.
- TotoHorner 3y ago
  Lol when the iPhone came out, literally everyone was criticizing it for how expensive it was. Also, looking at the functionality it had when it first came out, it wouldn't have really been very useful for me (no app store, basically just an iPod + shitty browser + phone). Anyway, does anyone actually think that VR isn't going to revolutionize computing over the next 10 years?
  - supafastcoder 3y ago
    > shitty browser Well, well, even the iOS Safari that shipped with the first iPhone was miles ahead of anything else out there.
    - TotoHorner 3y ago
      Sure, I just meant compared to what we have today.
    - godzillabrennus 3y ago
      People who used a blackberry can understand how big of a jump the iPhone was for mobile browsing.
      - rob74 3y ago
        TBF back then no site was optimized to be viewed on a small screen, only after the iPhone and then Android came along did we get "mobile-friendly" or even "mobile-first" sites...
        dpkonofa 3y ago
        That's not entirely true. WAP browsing was the norm for most mobile devices. The stuff we call "mobile-friendly" now is light years ahead of what we had then.
nerdjon 3y ago
The iPad and the iPhone were heavily criticized when they came out. While both were pushing some good tech, they were also going against the general wisdom of what made a product in each category.
- ericmay 3y ago
  Yea. Remember all the memes of the iPad being 4 iPhones taped together? It was widely criticized and considered to be a flop by some. A pointless device even.
  - plagiarist 3y ago
    It was kinda that, though, wasn't it? I think Vision Pro might be a similar evolution. IMO this is a tool for professionals and media enthusiasts. After proving out some use cases they'll transition later generations like how the iPad Pro has grown into stuff like graphics editing.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    The iPad had a higher sells trajectory its first four years than the iPhone did its it’s first four years.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  What, the iPhone too? The iPad was called a big iPhone (especially when they showcased on stage that you can run iPhone apps with 2x magnification), but I remember there being a lot of hype for the iPhone.
  - arnorhs 3y ago
    Maybe for some people. A lot of people, esp. reporters and the like who loved their blackberries were heavily negative towards not having a physical keyboard.. It's kind of hard to imagine that this was the reality, given where we are today.
    - Hamuko 3y ago
tiffanyh 3y ago
> When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. I remember history a bit differently. I recall lots of people dismissing the iPad as "just a big iPod Touch".
- ChicagoBoy11 3y ago
  this is exactly as I remember it as well... it was quite mem'ed on that dimension alone, as to why would you need a giant one of the thing they already had.
- plagiarist 3y ago
  "iPad? Why did they name it after a tampon hahahaha never getting one of those. Similarly priced laptops are more powerful and have a keyboard." TBF the early models weren't as good and didn't have the keyboard and Apple Pencil of today.
  - Hamuko 3y ago
    They also ran iOS without really much adaptation for the form factor. Now it's called "iPadOS" and has functionality that differentiates it from an iPhone. You can even dual screen the thing if you're a weirdo.
    - lobsterthief 3y ago
      I love using it as a second screen when I’m out at a coffee shop. It works so seamlessly and I can throw Slack on there while I code, without looking like a complete weirdo
      - jwells89 3y ago
        Sidecar works surprisingly well. With its latency and performance it’s barely distinguishable from a wired screen even running a HiDPI resolution.
diggan 3y ago
Can you really call the iPad a general purpose computing device? I feel like that should be reserved for things that can run whatever code you want. The iPad is closer to a "consumption device" than general computing, I'd say.
raverbashing 3y ago
> When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. Honestly no. It just looked like a giant iPhone
EtienneK 3y ago
The Quest 3 is really really good though. So a higher res version of it is not a bad thing - just not revolutionary.
reacharavindh 3y ago
Not that I am running to buy this thing. Remember, the first iPhone shipped with no ability to copy and paste stuff, sort glued hardware inside the case, and no ability to add a microSD card like those of the Nokia phones of the time. If the first iPhone pre-order was posted on HN, it would have received a similar comment… :-) It is a first gen device. It is not for everybody, and it is going to be severely lacking in feature set. The key is what they are trying to genuinely bring to the table rather than what is missing(or that it is heavier or needs a battery hanging on the side - these are fixable things in the next iterations).
aforty 3y ago
I remember people mocking it as the iPhone MaxiPad.
ghaff 3y ago
The iPad was arguably rather a pre-1.0 version when it came out. And I must say I rarely use mine around the house. I'm admittedly not a kid that writes papers on an iPhone and doesn't even want a laptop but it's just much easier to use a laptop for searching/writing/etc. Doing much less travel than pre-COVID, I'm not even sure I'll replace my iPad when it goes out of support. A MacBook Air and Kindle combo does most things as well or better and weighs only marginally more.
- gvurrdon 3y ago
  I've found that all I ever use it for is to look at chord charts at jam sessions as it's easier to see than my phone.
- dpkonofa 3y ago
  I think I use my devices in pretty much exactly the way Apple planned for their use. My laptop gets used for work. My iPad gets used for reading, email, and light web browsing. My phone is what I take with me when I leave the house. The iPad also doubles for travel for me. I use all 3 nearly an equal amount of time and use Handoff and all that stuff regularly between the 3.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ssharp 3y ago
The iPhone was widely mocked for costing $500 with a 2-year contract with AT&T at release. It also didn't have native apps and only worked with AT&T. The big jump for Apple was the next release of the iPhone 3G that brought the price down toe $200 (with contract) and also opened up the platform for native apps.
H12 3y ago
I wonder how much of that is due to the specific nature of this type of product, and how it compares to those past launches. With iPhone & iPad, you had products that people could very easily imagine using. The iPhone was the combination of three technologies people were already familiar with, the iPad was the iPhone, but bigger. It is really difficult to imagine using a VR headset if you haven't used one before -- there simply isn't a frame of reference. And even if you have used an Oculus or a SteamVR headset, an interface built around eye & tracking is still completely novel. I think a lack of mass-market appeal is something that is inherent to a product like this, which makes it a very different product from a marketing perspective than iPhone or iPad. It makes sense to me that, rather than trying to copy-paste the iPhone or iPad launch, Apple would instead put out an exclusive halo product early, allow a few years for the public to build familiarity with it and settle on the core use-cases, all while they observe and iterate behind the scenes on a more accessible version for a wider audience.
latexr 3y ago
> When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. What I remember is everyone making fun of it, including the name¹, for being “just a big iPod Touch”. Similarly, the iPhone wasn’t taken all that seriously² on launch. The App Store wasn’t even an idea yet, let alone a reality. That is to say this always happens: people discount a new thing and use as contrast something else which was also discounted at the time but framed as if it had always been perceived by the current lens. I have no idea if the Vision Pro will “succeed” (however we define that), but we can be reasonably sure that the current version is the worse it will ever be. In other words, it will get better and it’s too soon to judge its impact. ¹ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTzhXMbOWHE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTzhXMbOWHE ² https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
- bombcar 3y ago
  People made fun of it, but also noted the price. Part of it was that the whole “tablet” idea hadn’t taken off and had been tried a number of times, so the general consensus was “it’s a good value for a nice version of a thing nobody seems to want.”
- bryanlarsen 3y ago
  It's not like the criticisms for the iPhone were wrong. The iPhone launched at what would in today's prices be about $2000. ($700 is $1000 today, plus you had to sign a contract that would otherwise have given you a "free" phone worth a similar amount). Plus it didn't have an app store. Both of those would have prevented the iPhone's success, but both were very quickly corrected. The 2007 iPhone was a limited niche product. The 2008 iPhone was not.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    It's hard to appreciate today but, early on for most people, the iPhone wasn't a "OMG, I have to get one of these right now" product. I had bought a Treo in late 2006 I think because I had a foot injury that meant I had to travel super-light. While I did get a 3GS a few years later, I don't recall any pressing urgency and there tons of stories related to carrier coverage etc.
ookblah 3y ago
uh yeah, i remember it quite differently. everyone was dismissive of the ipad...i remember even thinking how phones were getting bigger and what was the point.
miiiiiike 3y ago
The argument falls apart when you remember that more than one person outside of RIM owned a BlackBerry. Who has a Quest? Also? Who had a BlackBerry? Just the people who had a reason to own a BlackBerry. Everyone else just waited for the iPhone to exist. This isn’t the iPad release, it’s the Apple Watch release. It’s a flag-planting, limited capability, system for early adopters that’s meant to be a ramp to a more practical v2. I don’t think most people will have a use for the Vision Pro, but, for the people that do, it’s in a different league from what’s currently available. The mass market iPad/iPod Touch version of the Vision will be out in a few years.
prmoustache 3y ago
There is no reason this first iteration would not sell out. There are enough people with more money than sense or wishing to have an additional status symbol to sell it regardless of its qualities and defaults. The question is will it have enough appeal for the technology to trickle down to more affordable devices that the general population is willing to actually buy? And will it happen before we can implant chips directly into our brain? So far VR has occupied nothing less but a niche market.
ed_elliott_asc 3y ago
Im excited by this - I’ve wanted a device where I can look at whatever I want to set my focus to for my entire life (last couple of decades anyway) Now just how to figure out how to pay for it (and wait for the UK release)
HumblyTossed 3y ago
[flagged]
- dpkonofa 3y ago
  As much as you guys mention them, I have never, ever experienced an "Apple fanatic" in real life. I'm probably the closest thing to an Apple fanatic and that's only because I buy a lot of their products. I pre-ordered a Vision Pro because I see a lot of use for my business and some new avenues for services I can offer to clients. I'm not tempering any expectations. I'm very excited for this thing.
  - blensor 3y ago
    I think we don't really need to look that far. I have never seen a Hackernews posts that downvoted so many completely normal replies like in this one. I am expecting this here to be downvoted the same just for mentioning it.
    - dpkonofa 3y ago
      I think you’d get downvoted for not contributing anything and it would have nothing to do with these supposed “fanboys”. You made a claim with no evidence to support it that was so general it might as well be meaningless and then added some preemptive persecution. If I could downvote your comment, I sure would.
      - blensor 3y ago
        By all means, go ahead if that's your opinion. I did my best to upvote the comments to balance it out. You can look them up yourself, they were from astrange, LeoPanthera, sytelus, mdgrech23 and my own further down below And BTW, my own was just a plain response about how quickly it sold out, no judgement, hyping or hating on it.
        dpkonofa 3y ago
        I can't. HN won't let you downvote children of your own comments.
globalise83 3y ago
I see this as in the same category as 3D TV. Unless they're really into air combat simulations or use it professionally for some kind of visualisations, I can't see people wanting to sit on their couch with a big headset on. I would be interested to try it, but will wait for a rich friend to buy it first.
- ghaff 3y ago
  3D TV didn't even add much to purchase price. I needed a TV for a new room and bought one with 3D but it wasn't appreciably more expensive than an otherwise equivalent screen.There was never a lot of 3D content though. I bought the handful of discs of the good 3D movies and that was about it. I'd try it as well but if the addressable market is the gamers who hang on each NVIDIA GPU release I couldn't count on this being very interesting. Even console gaming generally is something of a niche market in the scheme of things.
newshorts 3y ago
When I saw the iPad demo on that stage with Steve Jobs I thought: it’s a big iPod for old people to look at pictures. Meh.
scarface_74 3y ago
You don’t remember how many people pooh poohed the iPhone when it first came out - no keyboard, no Flash support, it was too expensive, etc And even going further back - the iPod - “no wireless, less space then the Nomad, Lame” And for the youngsters who don’t get the reference https://m.slashdot.org/story/21026 https://m.slashdot.org/story/21026
joshstrange 3y ago
> The hands-on sessions that Apple gave to journalists earlier this week seemed a bit underwhelming. The reporter for the Verge wrote that it feels like the Quest, but with higher resolution. That's my #1 issue with the Quest and productivity/work is what I most want out of a VR/AR device at this point in time. Gaming on the quest was fun but it wore off (really shined playing with friends online but people are busy). Being able to work in a virtual space is very exciting for me and I can't wait to try it out.
- Rudism 3y ago
  The Quest 2's resolution was almost there for me--I could even spend a few hours at a time working on code in Immersed before I started to feel the eye strain. The Quest 3 has made it good enough that I could go all day if I wanted to. The only real sticking point now is the discomfort of wearing it on my face for that long.
al_borland 3y ago
The iPhone was $600 at launch, and when features were compared to other (much cheaper) phones, it didn’t stack up. It didn’t take videos, had a bad camera, slow internet speeds, etc, etc, etc. The iPhone didn’t win because it had the most features, it won because it made the features it had much easier to use… so people actually used them. Other phones could technically do stuff, but it was so annoying to do, no one did it. Not long before the iPhone launched I had a friend get a Moto Q. She was determined to get the most out of it and learn how to use everything. She was carrying a massive manual with her in her purse. The iPhone did those things without the need to study a manual for weeks or months.
- Fnoord 3y ago
  It is also the distortion field. You never heard people say the Nokia N95 (even though it was a very successful device) or the BlackBerry or the Macbook. So regardless, there is no 'the iPhone'. There was an original iPhone which IIRC didn't even have 3G. It couldn't do MMS. It couldn't do copy/paste. It was a crippled device, but it did a couple of things very well. It shows that in order to be successful the first iteration of a new product line doesn't have to be perfect.
DennisP 3y ago
The DPI is pretty critical here though. A big part of their pitch is that you can use this to work. You can open huge windows all around you full of readable text. Seems like it'd be great for coding. Especially since it has the AR too, so you're not totally isolated while you're doing that. Main problem could be too much weight for long sessions. But it's 600 grams, fairly close to the face with a very wide headband, and custom-fitted. Seems like it might be reasonably comfortable.
huytersd 3y ago
I remember the exact opposite. People were saying it’s just a bigger iPod touch, didn’t have a full fledged OS etc. Most online discussion said it would be a complete failure.

by pavlov 3y ago

ynniv 3y ago

No wireless? Less space than a Nomad? Lame Historically, reviews of Apple products based on their specs have aged poorly.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
scarface_74 3y ago
I got one better https://512pixels.net/2009/01/early-macintosh-reviews-show-dvorak-clueless-even-in-1984/ https://512pixels.net/2009/01/early-macintosh-reviews-show-d... John Dvorak > Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.
- ghaff 3y ago
  Given that at least 2 companies (including Microsoft) were already shipping mice for IBM PCs by 1984, and there were various pointing devices on engineering workstations, it seems like Dvorak was mostly just in his controversial mode.
- ch_sm 3y ago
  John Dvorak is golden claim-chowder. So influential yet so wrong.

nathancahill 3y ago

Saving this comment for 10 years from now.

TotoHorner 3y ago
Lol when the iPhone came out, literally everyone was criticizing it for how expensive it was. Also, looking at the functionality it had when it first came out, it wouldn't have really been very useful for me (no app store, basically just an iPod + shitty browser + phone). Anyway, does anyone actually think that VR isn't going to revolutionize computing over the next 10 years?
- supafastcoder 3y ago
  > shitty browser Well, well, even the iOS Safari that shipped with the first iPhone was miles ahead of anything else out there.
  - TotoHorner 3y ago
    Sure, I just meant compared to what we have today.
  - godzillabrennus 3y ago
    People who used a blackberry can understand how big of a jump the iPhone was for mobile browsing.
    - rob74 3y ago
      TBF back then no site was optimized to be viewed on a small screen, only after the iPhone and then Android came along did we get "mobile-friendly" or even "mobile-first" sites...
      - dpkonofa 3y ago
        That's not entirely true. WAP browsing was the norm for most mobile devices. The stuff we call "mobile-friendly" now is light years ahead of what we had then.

nerdjon 3y ago

The iPad and the iPhone were heavily criticized when they came out. While both were pushing some good tech, they were also going against the general wisdom of what made a product in each category.

ericmay 3y ago
Yea. Remember all the memes of the iPad being 4 iPhones taped together? It was widely criticized and considered to be a flop by some. A pointless device even.
- plagiarist 3y ago
  It was kinda that, though, wasn't it? I think Vision Pro might be a similar evolution. IMO this is a tool for professionals and media enthusiasts. After proving out some use cases they'll transition later generations like how the iPad Pro has grown into stuff like graphics editing.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  The iPad had a higher sells trajectory its first four years than the iPhone did its it’s first four years.
Hamuko 3y ago
What, the iPhone too? The iPad was called a big iPhone (especially when they showcased on stage that you can run iPhone apps with 2x magnification), but I remember there being a lot of hype for the iPhone.
- arnorhs 3y ago
  Maybe for some people. A lot of people, esp. reporters and the like who loved their blackberries were heavily negative towards not having a physical keyboard.. It's kind of hard to imagine that this was the reality, given where we are today.
  - Hamuko 3y ago

tiffanyh 3y ago

> When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. I remember history a bit differently. I recall lots of people dismissing the iPad as "just a big iPod Touch".

ChicagoBoy11 3y ago
this is exactly as I remember it as well... it was quite mem'ed on that dimension alone, as to why would you need a giant one of the thing they already had.
plagiarist 3y ago
"iPad? Why did they name it after a tampon hahahaha never getting one of those. Similarly priced laptops are more powerful and have a keyboard." TBF the early models weren't as good and didn't have the keyboard and Apple Pencil of today.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  They also ran iOS without really much adaptation for the form factor. Now it's called "iPadOS" and has functionality that differentiates it from an iPhone. You can even dual screen the thing if you're a weirdo.
  - lobsterthief 3y ago
    I love using it as a second screen when I’m out at a coffee shop. It works so seamlessly and I can throw Slack on there while I code, without looking like a complete weirdo
    - jwells89 3y ago
      Sidecar works surprisingly well. With its latency and performance it’s barely distinguishable from a wired screen even running a HiDPI resolution.

diggan 3y ago

Can you really call the iPad a general purpose computing device? I feel like that should be reserved for things that can run whatever code you want. The iPad is closer to a "consumption device" than general computing, I'd say.

raverbashing 3y ago

> When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. Honestly no. It just looked like a giant iPhone

EtienneK 3y ago

The Quest 3 is really really good though. So a higher res version of it is not a bad thing - just not revolutionary.

reacharavindh 3y ago

Not that I am running to buy this thing. Remember, the first iPhone shipped with no ability to copy and paste stuff, sort glued hardware inside the case, and no ability to add a microSD card like those of the Nokia phones of the time. If the first iPhone pre-order was posted on HN, it would have received a similar comment… :-) It is a first gen device. It is not for everybody, and it is going to be severely lacking in feature set. The key is what they are trying to genuinely bring to the table rather than what is missing(or that it is heavier or needs a battery hanging on the side - these are fixable things in the next iterations).

aforty 3y ago

I remember people mocking it as the iPhone MaxiPad.

ghaff 3y ago

The iPad was arguably rather a pre-1.0 version when it came out. And I must say I rarely use mine around the house. I'm admittedly not a kid that writes papers on an iPhone and doesn't even want a laptop but it's just much easier to use a laptop for searching/writing/etc. Doing much less travel than pre-COVID, I'm not even sure I'll replace my iPad when it goes out of support. A MacBook Air and Kindle combo does most things as well or better and weighs only marginally more.

gvurrdon 3y ago
I've found that all I ever use it for is to look at chord charts at jam sessions as it's easier to see than my phone.
dpkonofa 3y ago
I think I use my devices in pretty much exactly the way Apple planned for their use. My laptop gets used for work. My iPad gets used for reading, email, and light web browsing. My phone is what I take with me when I leave the house. The iPad also doubles for travel for me. I use all 3 nearly an equal amount of time and use Handoff and all that stuff regularly between the 3.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

ssharp 3y ago

The iPhone was widely mocked for costing $500 with a 2-year contract with AT&T at release. It also didn't have native apps and only worked with AT&T. The big jump for Apple was the next release of the iPhone 3G that brought the price down toe $200 (with contract) and also opened up the platform for native apps.

H12 3y ago

I wonder how much of that is due to the specific nature of this type of product, and how it compares to those past launches. With iPhone & iPad, you had products that people could very easily imagine using. The iPhone was the combination of three technologies people were already familiar with, the iPad was the iPhone, but bigger. It is really difficult to imagine using a VR headset if you haven't used one before -- there simply isn't a frame of reference. And even if you have used an Oculus or a SteamVR headset, an interface built around eye & tracking is still completely novel. I think a lack of mass-market appeal is something that is inherent to a product like this, which makes it a very different product from a marketing perspective than iPhone or iPad. It makes sense to me that, rather than trying to copy-paste the iPhone or iPad launch, Apple would instead put out an exclusive halo product early, allow a few years for the public to build familiarity with it and settle on the core use-cases, all while they observe and iterate behind the scenes on a more accessible version for a wider audience.

latexr 3y ago

> When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. What I remember is everyone making fun of it, including the name¹, for being “just a big iPod Touch”. Similarly, the iPhone wasn’t taken all that seriously² on launch. The App Store wasn’t even an idea yet, let alone a reality. That is to say this always happens: people discount a new thing and use as contrast something else which was also discounted at the time but framed as if it had always been perceived by the current lens. I have no idea if the Vision Pro will “succeed” (however we define that), but we can be reasonably sure that the current version is the worse it will ever be. In other words, it will get better and it’s too soon to judge its impact. ¹ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTzhXMbOWHE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTzhXMbOWHE ² https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

bombcar 3y ago
People made fun of it, but also noted the price. Part of it was that the whole “tablet” idea hadn’t taken off and had been tried a number of times, so the general consensus was “it’s a good value for a nice version of a thing nobody seems to want.”
bryanlarsen 3y ago
It's not like the criticisms for the iPhone were wrong. The iPhone launched at what would in today's prices be about $2000. ($700 is $1000 today, plus you had to sign a contract that would otherwise have given you a "free" phone worth a similar amount). Plus it didn't have an app store. Both of those would have prevented the iPhone's success, but both were very quickly corrected. The 2007 iPhone was a limited niche product. The 2008 iPhone was not.
- ghaff 3y ago
  It's hard to appreciate today but, early on for most people, the iPhone wasn't a "OMG, I have to get one of these right now" product. I had bought a Treo in late 2006 I think because I had a foot injury that meant I had to travel super-light. While I did get a 3GS a few years later, I don't recall any pressing urgency and there tons of stories related to carrier coverage etc.

ookblah 3y ago

uh yeah, i remember it quite differently. everyone was dismissive of the ipad...i remember even thinking how phones were getting bigger and what was the point.

miiiiiike 3y ago

The argument falls apart when you remember that more than one person outside of RIM owned a BlackBerry. Who has a Quest? Also? Who had a BlackBerry? Just the people who had a reason to own a BlackBerry. Everyone else just waited for the iPhone to exist. This isn’t the iPad release, it’s the Apple Watch release. It’s a flag-planting, limited capability, system for early adopters that’s meant to be a ramp to a more practical v2. I don’t think most people will have a use for the Vision Pro, but, for the people that do, it’s in a different league from what’s currently available. The mass market iPad/iPod Touch version of the Vision will be out in a few years.

prmoustache 3y ago

There is no reason this first iteration would not sell out. There are enough people with more money than sense or wishing to have an additional status symbol to sell it regardless of its qualities and defaults. The question is will it have enough appeal for the technology to trickle down to more affordable devices that the general population is willing to actually buy? And will it happen before we can implant chips directly into our brain? So far VR has occupied nothing less but a niche market.

ed_elliott_asc 3y ago

Im excited by this - I’ve wanted a device where I can look at whatever I want to set my focus to for my entire life (last couple of decades anyway) Now just how to figure out how to pay for it (and wait for the UK release)

HumblyTossed 3y ago

[flagged]

dpkonofa 3y ago
As much as you guys mention them, I have never, ever experienced an "Apple fanatic" in real life. I'm probably the closest thing to an Apple fanatic and that's only because I buy a lot of their products. I pre-ordered a Vision Pro because I see a lot of use for my business and some new avenues for services I can offer to clients. I'm not tempering any expectations. I'm very excited for this thing.
- blensor 3y ago
  I think we don't really need to look that far. I have never seen a Hackernews posts that downvoted so many completely normal replies like in this one. I am expecting this here to be downvoted the same just for mentioning it.
  - dpkonofa 3y ago
    I think you’d get downvoted for not contributing anything and it would have nothing to do with these supposed “fanboys”. You made a claim with no evidence to support it that was so general it might as well be meaningless and then added some preemptive persecution. If I could downvote your comment, I sure would.
    - blensor 3y ago
      By all means, go ahead if that's your opinion. I did my best to upvote the comments to balance it out. You can look them up yourself, they were from astrange, LeoPanthera, sytelus, mdgrech23 and my own further down below And BTW, my own was just a plain response about how quickly it sold out, no judgement, hyping or hating on it.
      - dpkonofa 3y ago
        I can't. HN won't let you downvote children of your own comments.

globalise83 3y ago

I see this as in the same category as 3D TV. Unless they're really into air combat simulations or use it professionally for some kind of visualisations, I can't see people wanting to sit on their couch with a big headset on. I would be interested to try it, but will wait for a rich friend to buy it first.

ghaff 3y ago
3D TV didn't even add much to purchase price. I needed a TV for a new room and bought one with 3D but it wasn't appreciably more expensive than an otherwise equivalent screen.There was never a lot of 3D content though. I bought the handful of discs of the good 3D movies and that was about it. I'd try it as well but if the addressable market is the gamers who hang on each NVIDIA GPU release I couldn't count on this being very interesting. Even console gaming generally is something of a niche market in the scheme of things.

newshorts 3y ago

When I saw the iPad demo on that stage with Steve Jobs I thought: it’s a big iPod for old people to look at pictures. Meh.

scarface_74 3y ago

You don’t remember how many people pooh poohed the iPhone when it first came out - no keyboard, no Flash support, it was too expensive, etc And even going further back - the iPod - “no wireless, less space then the Nomad, Lame” And for the youngsters who don’t get the reference https://m.slashdot.org/story/21026 https://m.slashdot.org/story/21026

joshstrange 3y ago

> The hands-on sessions that Apple gave to journalists earlier this week seemed a bit underwhelming. The reporter for the Verge wrote that it feels like the Quest, but with higher resolution. That's my #1 issue with the Quest and productivity/work is what I most want out of a VR/AR device at this point in time. Gaming on the quest was fun but it wore off (really shined playing with friends online but people are busy). Being able to work in a virtual space is very exciting for me and I can't wait to try it out.

Rudism 3y ago
The Quest 2's resolution was almost there for me--I could even spend a few hours at a time working on code in Immersed before I started to feel the eye strain. The Quest 3 has made it good enough that I could go all day if I wanted to. The only real sticking point now is the discomfort of wearing it on my face for that long.

al_borland 3y ago

The iPhone was $600 at launch, and when features were compared to other (much cheaper) phones, it didn’t stack up. It didn’t take videos, had a bad camera, slow internet speeds, etc, etc, etc. The iPhone didn’t win because it had the most features, it won because it made the features it had much easier to use… so people actually used them. Other phones could technically do stuff, but it was so annoying to do, no one did it. Not long before the iPhone launched I had a friend get a Moto Q. She was determined to get the most out of it and learn how to use everything. She was carrying a massive manual with her in her purse. The iPhone did those things without the need to study a manual for weeks or months.

Fnoord 3y ago
It is also the distortion field. You never heard people say the Nokia N95 (even though it was a very successful device) or the BlackBerry or the Macbook. So regardless, there is no 'the iPhone'. There was an original iPhone which IIRC didn't even have 3G. It couldn't do MMS. It couldn't do copy/paste. It was a crippled device, but it did a couple of things very well. It shows that in order to be successful the first iteration of a new product line doesn't have to be perfect.

DennisP 3y ago

The DPI is pretty critical here though. A big part of their pitch is that you can use this to work. You can open huge windows all around you full of readable text. Seems like it'd be great for coding. Especially since it has the AR too, so you're not totally isolated while you're doing that. Main problem could be too much weight for long sessions. But it's 600 grams, fairly close to the face with a very wide headband, and custom-fitted. Seems like it might be reasonably comfortable.

huytersd 3y ago

I remember the exact opposite. People were saying it’s just a bigger iPod touch, didn’t have a full fledged OS etc. Most online discussion said it would be a complete failure.