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Apple Reportedly Suspends Work on Vision Pro 2

59 points by thm 2y ago

ceejayoz 2y ago
A little clickbaity; in favor of a Vision 2.
- jagger27 2y ago
  They just have to go with Vision Air, especially if it’s lighter.
- brandall10 2y ago
  As the article notes they were already working on the cheaper model. It makes no mention or shifting resources or increasing efforts toward it.
  - jmull 2y ago
    That only makes sense if the projects are unrelated... separate budget, different engineers, managers, executives, separate marketing teams, even separate suppliers and supply chains. Obviously, they are related.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - brandall10 2y ago
      Oh course there’s going to be shared resources, just like there will be unique resources, and those could very well be redirected elsewhere in the company or let go. There is no mention of increasing effort for a project that was already known to exist. This is like saying Apple choosing to decommission the Pro line of the iPhone is clickbait because they’re still going to be developing iPhones.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bowsamic 2y ago
That's a good sign, it means they are committed to moving towards the more affordable market. Something many commentors here (including myself) thought would not be possible
- brandall10 2y ago
  They were already working on the cheaper model, as the article notes.
  - bowsamic 2y ago
    I know, and going all in on that is a good sign that they are confident in it
    - brandall10 2y ago
      But it says nothing about increasing effort or shifting resources toward it.
      - bowsamic 2y ago
        Sure, I didn't claim it did. It says something significant about their confidence in it.
        brandall10 2y ago
        I read it differently, insofar they don’t believe there is a market for the higher. The Pro’s rollout is pretty much seen as a failure at this point.
- CooCooCaCha 2y ago
  Not necessarily a good sign. Non-pro models have fewer features than pro models so this could be a sign that they're being less cutting edge and innovative.
  - 2y ago
top_sigrid 2y ago
"... to singularly focus on a cheaper model, The Information reports." The title is a little misleading.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
cglan 2y ago
I felt like I was committing heresy when I told my friends that the vision pro was unlikely to succeed or at least succeed culturally. I'm sure it will pick up some niches just like the meta headset. The reality is, this is a covid product and covid is over. Regardless of price (outside being extremely cheap) I don't see people even dropping $1500 on this thing. I don't have a single person in my life that has used a VR headset for anything more than beatsaber and the occasional movie. They're sweaty, heavy, and they're just isolating to wear for long periods of time, along with various other edge cases like glasses and eye strain. There's already a pretty big movement to limit screen time and cut down on technology, and focus on fitness. I think that's why the apple watch is doing so well. I could see something like the ray ban meta glasses taking off, especially with an enhanced siri and some AR. But the vision pro and VR in general feels like a form of nerd sniping that the general public literally doesn't care about other than randomly using it at parties.
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  The Vision Pro was essentially a devkit to send the message that Apple wants devs to think about VR apps.
  - dwallin 2y ago
    One major problem with the Vision Pro as a devkit is it's extremely locked down. The only significant AR experiences you can create are those already anticipated by Apple and compatible with their privacy expectations. IMO this was a huge mistake. This is a completely new form factor, not an established market. You need people doing significant experimentation, and to be able to create compelling new experiences that your in-house staff haven't even dreamed of. It's fine if you have a user-friendly default, but there should be some way to opt into a professional mode that opens up more possibilities for novel experiences.
    - j45 2y ago
      Google Glass was pretty locked down too iirc. Still was a neat device.
oldpersonintx 2y ago
[dead]
frenchie4111 2y ago
Apple will only release a second "Pro" model when they can make significant advancements over the previous one. Likely we will see a Pro then Air (then Pro...) tick tock cycle for a while as the technology develops
- rchaud 2y ago
  The issue with the AVP is not technology, it's the lack of applications for it.
- boogieknite 2y ago
  After trying out os2 this makes a lot of sense. Noticeable qol leap in UX and tracking. Not that it feels like avp 2 but you notice the upgrades. Seems like testing on guinea pigs who bought the expensive dev kit is paying off. Software and slimmer model are a good idea to popularize. Id like to stick with my current AVP for at least 5 years rather than frothing for an AVP 2 to fomo over.
jmull 2y ago
The headline leaves out the most important part: "... to Focus on a Cheaper Model". Surely, the right move. I can mostly believe VR headsets will catch on, but not at the price of the current Vision Pro. There's a chicken and egg dynamic here, for developing compelling content/software to take advantage of the capabilities and the number of people with headsets that can consume that content. That's just not going to unravel with the Vision Pro.
- barbariangrunge 2y ago
  It’s not financially worthwhile for most third party developers to develop apps for a platform with too few users. Not sure how the iPhone originally did it, that seems pretty amazing to me. But yeah, need a product to drive up adoption so a healthy ecosystem can form around it… so they can capture 30% of it
  - freedomben 2y ago
    The iPhone did it by being essentially an iPod Touch that could make calls. Lots of people were already familiar with iPod and iPod Touch, so when it turned into the first programmable phone, it was novel and exciting, and then the gold rush took off when people started making money and it grew from there.
    - hnfong 2y ago
      FWIW, the iPod Touch was released after the first iPhone.
      - gizajob 2y ago
        Yeah it was "essentially" a mobile phone that people already understood the value of, particularly because of Blackberry, so it was a potentially improved mobile phone given its touchscreen and interface. It was also a much better iPod and a web browser alongside. The iPod touch came much later.
  - jmull 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
loongloong 2y ago
As one of Apple's long form PR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7al_Gpolb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7al_Gpolb8 outlined, patience for platform building. I think it's quite important for the industry to have a reference for XR (AR + VR) where the focus is on accurate assessment of the user's immediate physical surroundings and provide for non-fatiguing interactivity, especially after Hololens practically disappeared. I hope Vision Pro lasts much longer than Hololens (didn't miss Ping, but certainly miss 3D touch). Meta's headsets focus on bringing the user into another world, another important but different reference point.
- mgh2 2y ago
  "Building a platform", patience
gcanyon 2y ago
I'll be the outlier here: if the AVP were $1500, I'd buy it in a heartbeat and use it for most of the day at work. The "work on a big screen floating in front of you" experience is excellent, and I say that comparing it to working on a big screen in Quest 2, which I've done for hours at a time. In addition, media is super compelling in AVP. I'd watch movies in it, facetime with it, etc. etc. If the "cheaper model" is $1500 and all they lose is, say, the external screens, I'd grab it up.
hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago
Virtual reality is a "flying car" product category peeking its head up every 10 years. Also, Tim Cook vacillates like Sundar Pichai. Unlike Steve Jobs, they just don't know what to make or what products to invest in. So they dabble here and there, starting and discontinuing products haphazardly without a clear mission except to pump the stock price by any chicanery necessary.
eddyzh 2y ago
The price would be defendable on a more mature device if developers would be free to develop stuff for it as on a Mac. For now it was not worth it even though the hardware was nice.

59 points by thm 2y ago

ceejayoz 2y ago

A little clickbaity; in favor of a Vision 2.

jagger27 2y ago
They just have to go with Vision Air, especially if it’s lighter.
brandall10 2y ago
As the article notes they were already working on the cheaper model. It makes no mention or shifting resources or increasing efforts toward it.
- jmull 2y ago
  That only makes sense if the projects are unrelated... separate budget, different engineers, managers, executives, separate marketing teams, even separate suppliers and supply chains. Obviously, they are related.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - brandall10 2y ago
    Oh course there’s going to be shared resources, just like there will be unique resources, and those could very well be redirected elsewhere in the company or let go. There is no mention of increasing effort for a project that was already known to exist. This is like saying Apple choosing to decommission the Pro line of the iPhone is clickbait because they’re still going to be developing iPhones.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

bowsamic 2y ago

That's a good sign, it means they are committed to moving towards the more affordable market. Something many commentors here (including myself) thought would not be possible

brandall10 2y ago
They were already working on the cheaper model, as the article notes.
- bowsamic 2y ago
  I know, and going all in on that is a good sign that they are confident in it
  - brandall10 2y ago
    But it says nothing about increasing effort or shifting resources toward it.
    - bowsamic 2y ago
      Sure, I didn't claim it did. It says something significant about their confidence in it.
      - brandall10 2y ago
        I read it differently, insofar they don’t believe there is a market for the higher. The Pro’s rollout is pretty much seen as a failure at this point.
CooCooCaCha 2y ago
Not necessarily a good sign. Non-pro models have fewer features than pro models so this could be a sign that they're being less cutting edge and innovative.
- 2y ago

top_sigrid 2y ago

"... to singularly focus on a cheaper model, The Information reports." The title is a little misleading.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

cglan 2y ago

I felt like I was committing heresy when I told my friends that the vision pro was unlikely to succeed or at least succeed culturally. I'm sure it will pick up some niches just like the meta headset. The reality is, this is a covid product and covid is over. Regardless of price (outside being extremely cheap) I don't see people even dropping $1500 on this thing. I don't have a single person in my life that has used a VR headset for anything more than beatsaber and the occasional movie. They're sweaty, heavy, and they're just isolating to wear for long periods of time, along with various other edge cases like glasses and eye strain. There's already a pretty big movement to limit screen time and cut down on technology, and focus on fitness. I think that's why the apple watch is doing so well. I could see something like the ray ban meta glasses taking off, especially with an enhanced siri and some AR. But the vision pro and VR in general feels like a form of nerd sniping that the general public literally doesn't care about other than randomly using it at parties.

ceejayoz 2y ago
The Vision Pro was essentially a devkit to send the message that Apple wants devs to think about VR apps.
- dwallin 2y ago
  One major problem with the Vision Pro as a devkit is it's extremely locked down. The only significant AR experiences you can create are those already anticipated by Apple and compatible with their privacy expectations. IMO this was a huge mistake. This is a completely new form factor, not an established market. You need people doing significant experimentation, and to be able to create compelling new experiences that your in-house staff haven't even dreamed of. It's fine if you have a user-friendly default, but there should be some way to opt into a professional mode that opens up more possibilities for novel experiences.
  - j45 2y ago
    Google Glass was pretty locked down too iirc. Still was a neat device.

oldpersonintx 2y ago

[dead]

frenchie4111 2y ago

Apple will only release a second "Pro" model when they can make significant advancements over the previous one. Likely we will see a Pro then Air (then Pro...) tick tock cycle for a while as the technology develops

rchaud 2y ago
The issue with the AVP is not technology, it's the lack of applications for it.
boogieknite 2y ago
After trying out os2 this makes a lot of sense. Noticeable qol leap in UX and tracking. Not that it feels like avp 2 but you notice the upgrades. Seems like testing on guinea pigs who bought the expensive dev kit is paying off. Software and slimmer model are a good idea to popularize. Id like to stick with my current AVP for at least 5 years rather than frothing for an AVP 2 to fomo over.

jmull 2y ago

The headline leaves out the most important part: "... to Focus on a Cheaper Model". Surely, the right move. I can mostly believe VR headsets will catch on, but not at the price of the current Vision Pro. There's a chicken and egg dynamic here, for developing compelling content/software to take advantage of the capabilities and the number of people with headsets that can consume that content. That's just not going to unravel with the Vision Pro.

barbariangrunge 2y ago
It’s not financially worthwhile for most third party developers to develop apps for a platform with too few users. Not sure how the iPhone originally did it, that seems pretty amazing to me. But yeah, need a product to drive up adoption so a healthy ecosystem can form around it… so they can capture 30% of it
- freedomben 2y ago
  The iPhone did it by being essentially an iPod Touch that could make calls. Lots of people were already familiar with iPod and iPod Touch, so when it turned into the first programmable phone, it was novel and exciting, and then the gold rush took off when people started making money and it grew from there.
  - hnfong 2y ago
    FWIW, the iPod Touch was released after the first iPhone.
    - gizajob 2y ago
      Yeah it was "essentially" a mobile phone that people already understood the value of, particularly because of Blackberry, so it was a potentially improved mobile phone given its touchscreen and interface. It was also a much better iPod and a web browser alongside. The iPod touch came much later.
- jmull 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

loongloong 2y ago

As one of Apple's long form PR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7al_Gpolb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7al_Gpolb8 outlined, patience for platform building. I think it's quite important for the industry to have a reference for XR (AR + VR) where the focus is on accurate assessment of the user's immediate physical surroundings and provide for non-fatiguing interactivity, especially after Hololens practically disappeared. I hope Vision Pro lasts much longer than Hololens (didn't miss Ping, but certainly miss 3D touch). Meta's headsets focus on bringing the user into another world, another important but different reference point.

mgh2 2y ago
"Building a platform", patience

gcanyon 2y ago

I'll be the outlier here: if the AVP were $1500, I'd buy it in a heartbeat and use it for most of the day at work. The "work on a big screen floating in front of you" experience is excellent, and I say that comparing it to working on a big screen in Quest 2, which I've done for hours at a time. In addition, media is super compelling in AVP. I'd watch movies in it, facetime with it, etc. etc. If the "cheaper model" is $1500 and all they lose is, say, the external screens, I'd grab it up.

hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago

Virtual reality is a "flying car" product category peeking its head up every 10 years. Also, Tim Cook vacillates like Sundar Pichai. Unlike Steve Jobs, they just don't know what to make or what products to invest in. So they dabble here and there, starting and discontinuing products haphazardly without a clear mission except to pump the stock price by any chicanery necessary.

eddyzh 2y ago

The price would be defendable on a more mature device if developers would be free to develop stuff for it as on a Mac. For now it was not worth it even though the hardware was nice.