4 ms·

The better analogy is probably something like the Apple Watch. Apple certainly wasn't the first smartwatch, but anyone who owned one before that was obviously

• m463 3y ago
  Correlation does not imply causation. I think smartwatches (and step trackers) were a thing, independent of apple. I remember a friend talking about load balancers when they were first came on the market 20 years ago. Cisco had this thing called "localdirector" which I believe couldn't handle load in the first place, while competitors did load balancing in hardware. I was puzzled why people bought them. My friend said, "Look, people buy $1M of cisco equipment, and they can just add a line item for one or 10 of these with no friction" So, I think Apple made their watch a "line item". People buy a phone, and they need cables and the watch is sitting there, and they say "ok!" and try one. (aside, I love my garmin watch. I just put it on my wrist. I haven't hooked it to my phone or connected it to the internet. It is great with battery life. I track my sleep, which seems to be when most people put their apple watch on a charger. I put my watch on the charger during my shower, which is all it needs)
  • hartator 3y ago
    > I put my watch on the charger during my shower, which is all it needs Same as the Apple Watch.
    • muppetman 3y ago
      Every day though. I charge my Garmin once a week when it gets down to 50%. The Garmin is a fitness watch with a few basic smartwatch features though. The Apple watch is a Smartwatch (with a lot of fitness features) The two aren't really comparable I don't think.
    • m463 3y ago
      > which is all it needs ...to top it up to 7 days of charge
• hackernewds 3y ago
  > Apple made the first mainstream acceptable smartwatch by smoothing over a lot of the complaints about their competitors, Really? Why do Apple fanboys make these kinda claims.. same as wireless Bluetooth pods, or fingerprint readers, or faceID. There are ample examples of these done well on the hardware side prior. The main advantage Apple has is its seamless integration with software, which of course it pairs well with iOS because nothing else is allowed to.
  • slg 3y ago
    You clearly missed my point entirely. I'm not a fanboy saying Apple's products are the best. I even specifically said their success is "due to their marketing prowess and the strength of their brand just as much as their technical expertise." They weren't the first smartwatch, but Apple is the company most responsibly for changing arbitrary societal metrics of "mainstream acceptance" like the percentage of people who would wear a smartwatch on a first date. That seems like an obvious observation and a "win" even if smartwatches aren't as ubiquitous as smartphones. I think the Vision Pro will follow a similar trajectory of success in that it will take years before anyone uses that word "success", but a few years from now you'll get on a plane and notice more than a few people wearing headsets and that will be because of Apple.
    • Thlom 3y ago
      I agree with you, but not about the Vision Pro. I could see the potential and use cases for the iPhone, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, Apple TV. This headset though? It's a gimmick. I can see some niche use cases for it in very specific industries and in gaming. But I don't see that "normal" people would want to spend significant money on this. Not even if the price dropped to $999.
      • codethief 3y ago
        I would consider my use case (desire) of comfortably working from, say, a coffee shop without having to bring my 24" screen pretty "normal" and non-niche.
• darkwater 3y ago
  3500USD, an external battery and still "looking weird", I don't think you are going to see too many of them on planes, unless it's some die-hard Apple fanboy. If they manage to make next iteration slimmer (like, half the size) and with a battery in it, this might start to happen. But the market will be anyway smaller than the smartwatch one.
  • fouc 3y ago
    prices will come down, there'll be a non-Pro line, you think the market will be smaller but you forget it replaces displays, so people with laptops will migrate to using this, and then Apple will come out with headless laptops.
    • darkwater 3y ago
      Until the ergonomic radically improves, it will be a niche device for enthusiasts. IF they manage to produce some AR device that 1) you almost won't notice you are wearing 2) it has pass-through light capabilities so being real AR and not VR mimicking AR, THEN it can get mass-adoption, at least for office workers or to replace big TV screens.
  • vaylian 3y ago
    I still think it's weird how many people's eyes are glued to their phone screen in everyday situations and social settings. I think it's realistic that these headsets become acceptable and normal.
    • azulster 3y ago
      in general people have always saught a way to not have to look at each other in public. before phones it was newspapers and magazines as the social scourge of anti-social behavior
• azulster 3y ago
  > The better analogy is probably something like the Apple Watch. first apple watch was afailure and immediately fixed by the watch 2 >Apple made the first mainstream acceptable smartwatch by smoothing over a lot of the complaints about their competitors, if anything apple set back smart watch development, the real groundbreaker was Pebble, but thanks to apple the smart wtach market is a stagnant perpetual compromise to justify low battery life with overpowered chips and bright screens, when all we really want is week-long batteries, e-ink always on displays, and physical buttons to work well. i say this as an owner of at least 2 apple watches over the years. pebble never had a chance, but android's watch software has always suffered on trying to play apple's game instead of finding a true advantage