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I struggle to see what new capabilities Vision enables that justify its inconvenient form factor. Apple had how much time to come up with a killer app for Visi

by lijok 3y ago

I struggle to see what new capabilities Vision enables that justify its inconvenient form factor. Apple had how much time to come up with a killer app for Vision? And what did they come up with? Apple should be bursting at the seams with crazy innovative app ideas. If they can’t come up with anything interesting, I doubt many independent developers will.

dharmab 3y ago
The only use case I see is for someone who lives alone and doesn't have space for a home theater. Compared to the cost of a huge OLED TV and surround sound system, it's worth consideration. Otherwise, what use case is worth 3.5k? It's not a work device, because the sidecar is limited to a single display. It's not compatible with OpenXR, so it's not a simulation device.
- wkat4242 3y ago
  The effective resolution will be lower than 4K of course. Because each display is roughly 4K per eye but both have a lot of overlap (necessary for the stereo effect) and the virtual display doesn't use the full visual field because that would be incredibly uncomfortable. Like sitting too close to a cinema screen. I have my doubts about productivity too. One or two displays doesn't really make the most of it and you still need a Mac to run serious computing (better than iOS or iPad OS) apps. I also wonder how well the eye tracking mouse pointer plus finger pinching for clicking will be when doing this for real work. I'd imagine it fatigues quickly. Oculus uses hand movements plus finger pinching and that's way worse for comfort than using the VR controllers. And of course there's the elephant in the room, the price tag.
- lttlrck 3y ago
  For watching movies I'd take a short throw projector over any VR HMD for the foreseeable future. Plus even if I were single, I'd probably be planning on guests at some point.
  - dharmab 3y ago
    I've got a projector home theater, there's a couple of issues: 1. You need to have a lot of control over the room lighting. If you can't block out all the light the image quality suffers a lot. 2. You need to have a clear wall or projector screen, which might mean giving up some useful space in your home. 3. The black levels are awful compared to OLED. As for guests, other than the occasional movie nights, we usually play a board game or are making something as our activity.
  - jdksmdbtbdnmsm 3y ago
    a short throw probector is far more cumbersome and inconvenient than a tv in that situation
- mensetmanusman 3y ago
  "want to come over and watch me watch a movie?"
- jensensbutton 3y ago
  If they ever want to not live alone they'll still want a TV.
x0x0 3y ago
And against a low hundreds of thousands potential installed base with apple stealing 30% -- ie well over half your profit on typical 50% saas margins. How can developers make money on that? A super-high 10% of tam is optimistically 40k copies sold. That's borderline for a solo dev, and doesn't come close to covering the opportunity cost for any larger software shop.
zachkatz 3y ago
Phones have completely fucked our posture because they have to be hunched over and our fingers need to contort into unnatural shapes and do repetitive motions. The form factor of being able to stand up straight (or sit back) naturally while computing is the killer feature.
- dharmab 3y ago
  I assure you our posture was already terrible
- lijok 3y ago
  That’s an interesting take, and I can agree with it. How will you sell this however?
  - beenBoutIT 3y ago
    Be the one person who doesn't look like a hunchback endlessly poking at a small tablet - by standing upright and endlessly poking into the space around you.

by lijok 3y ago

dharmab 3y ago

The only use case I see is for someone who lives alone and doesn't have space for a home theater. Compared to the cost of a huge OLED TV and surround sound system, it's worth consideration. Otherwise, what use case is worth 3.5k? It's not a work device, because the sidecar is limited to a single display. It's not compatible with OpenXR, so it's not a simulation device.

wkat4242 3y ago
The effective resolution will be lower than 4K of course. Because each display is roughly 4K per eye but both have a lot of overlap (necessary for the stereo effect) and the virtual display doesn't use the full visual field because that would be incredibly uncomfortable. Like sitting too close to a cinema screen. I have my doubts about productivity too. One or two displays doesn't really make the most of it and you still need a Mac to run serious computing (better than iOS or iPad OS) apps. I also wonder how well the eye tracking mouse pointer plus finger pinching for clicking will be when doing this for real work. I'd imagine it fatigues quickly. Oculus uses hand movements plus finger pinching and that's way worse for comfort than using the VR controllers. And of course there's the elephant in the room, the price tag.
lttlrck 3y ago
For watching movies I'd take a short throw projector over any VR HMD for the foreseeable future. Plus even if I were single, I'd probably be planning on guests at some point.
- dharmab 3y ago
  I've got a projector home theater, there's a couple of issues: 1. You need to have a lot of control over the room lighting. If you can't block out all the light the image quality suffers a lot. 2. You need to have a clear wall or projector screen, which might mean giving up some useful space in your home. 3. The black levels are awful compared to OLED. As for guests, other than the occasional movie nights, we usually play a board game or are making something as our activity.
- jdksmdbtbdnmsm 3y ago
  a short throw probector is far more cumbersome and inconvenient than a tv in that situation
mensetmanusman 3y ago
"want to come over and watch me watch a movie?"
jensensbutton 3y ago
If they ever want to not live alone they'll still want a TV.

x0x0 3y ago

And against a low hundreds of thousands potential installed base with apple stealing 30% -- ie well over half your profit on typical 50% saas margins. How can developers make money on that? A super-high 10% of tam is optimistically 40k copies sold. That's borderline for a solo dev, and doesn't come close to covering the opportunity cost for any larger software shop.

zachkatz 3y ago

Phones have completely fucked our posture because they have to be hunched over and our fingers need to contort into unnatural shapes and do repetitive motions. The form factor of being able to stand up straight (or sit back) naturally while computing is the killer feature.

dharmab 3y ago
I assure you our posture was already terrible
lijok 3y ago
That’s an interesting take, and I can agree with it. How will you sell this however?
- beenBoutIT 3y ago
  Be the one person who doesn't look like a hunchback endlessly poking at a small tablet - by standing upright and endlessly poking into the space around you.