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Across the globe more than a dozen Vision Pro owners rejoiced!

runjake 1y ago
According to the best estimates, a little more than 500,000 Vision Pro units have been sold. Pretty good for what is tantamount to a prototype. It was mentioned somewhere during WWDC that "hundreds of companies" are using Vision Pro, so that's at least 200 companies, as well.
- andsoitis 1y ago
  > Pretty good for what is tantamount to a prototype. Prototype? I do not get that impression from Apple's very prominent product placement: https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/ https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/
  - runjake 1y ago
    Tantamount (adjective): Equivalent in meaning or effect. Apple did the same with Apple Watch when sales were low and returns were high. Because they believed in the product. Apple believes in Apple Vision Pro, as well. Hell, I believe in the Apple Vision Pro, too. I think it's a significant part of the future. The price is just far too high for me.
  - haswell 1y ago
    I think it’s fairly widely understood at this point that the product Apple wants to ship is more like glasses than a helmet. But the tech to achieve this isn’t there yet, and the current product is a necessary iteration to get to that future. Apple will of course heavily market/sell the current iteration of the product in the short term - but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to view this as a prototype given what we know about their longer term ambitions and the limitations of the current hardware.
    - jorvi 1y ago
      Pretty much what happened with the MacBook Air. The MacBook Air was preceded by the MacBook 2011 (yes, horrible model name to search). It had no keyboard backlight, an 11" crappy screen, short battery life and it overheated. But compared to contemporary laptops it was futuristic. What do you mean, a laptop you can slide into an envelope? But then it was followed up swiftly by a secondary model and then the MacBook Air. With the MacBook Air it really started to become a nice device. Another device that comes to mind is the iPod Touch 1, which didn't even have volume buttons.
      - zapzupnz 1y ago
        This timeline isn’t right. The MacBook Air preceded that particular MacBook, but they were different categories (Air didn’t have a Retina display, for example). The MacBook Air eventually took on the general unibody design of the 11” MacBook, then improved upon it in most ways.
        jorvi 1y ago
        Yeah, you're right. I had to do some Google-fu, but the timeline is: MacBook 2008[0] into MacBook Air 2010[1]. The MacBook 2008 was the chunky unibody that would be inherited by the Pro line. This model had non-backlit keys on the cheaper model, backlit on the more expensive. Only 13", 1280x800. The Air 2010 had no backlit keys, and 11" or 13", 1366x768. Despite having the better processor it overheated quickly. The battery life was pretty abysmal too. There is also the MacBook Retina 2015 12" [2]. But this had all the modern amenities. The MacBook Retina would go on to be killed, but like you said, some of the design decisions would end up being inherited by the Air line. I guess I got my wires crossed in regards to the Air and the MacBook Retina 12". [0]https://support.apple.com/en-lk/112512 https://support.apple.com/en-lk/112512 [1]https://support.apple.com/en-lb/112580 https://support.apple.com/en-lb/112580 [2] https://support.apple.com/en-us/112442 https://support.apple.com/en-us/112442
    - andsoitis 1y ago
      > wants to ship is more like glasses than a helmet. But the tech to achieve this isn’t there yet, and the current product is a necessary iteration to get to that future. Why is that step necessary? How does it help on the path to glasses? Why not develop glasses that can block out peripheral light, have all the sensors, need little power etc. before selling a helmet? Those seem like intractable problems to solve in a glasses or contact lens form factor so my prediction is it stays at the helmet design OR we jump to direct neural solution. But all of this begs the question if use case still, which even at $500 or $1000 doesn’t seem compelling (with other VR and AR as proof points).
- cptcobalt 1y ago
  Prototype is not a charitable interpretation of the product. If you've been part of hardware, firmware, and software development processes, you'd really truly understand what prototypes are.
- GeekyBear 1y ago
  > According to the best estimates, a little more than 500,000 Vision Pro units have been sold. It's also worth remembering that Sony was only projected to be able to produce enough micro-OLED displays to make ~500,000 units in the first year.

According to the best estimates, a little more than 500,000 Vision Pro units have been sold. Pretty good for what is tantamount to a prototype. It was mentioned somewhere during WWDC that "hundreds of companies" are using Vision Pro, so that's at least 200 companies, as well.

andsoitis 1y ago
> Pretty good for what is tantamount to a prototype. Prototype? I do not get that impression from Apple's very prominent product placement: https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/ https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/
- runjake 1y ago
  Tantamount (adjective): Equivalent in meaning or effect. Apple did the same with Apple Watch when sales were low and returns were high. Because they believed in the product. Apple believes in Apple Vision Pro, as well. Hell, I believe in the Apple Vision Pro, too. I think it's a significant part of the future. The price is just far too high for me.
- haswell 1y ago
  I think it’s fairly widely understood at this point that the product Apple wants to ship is more like glasses than a helmet. But the tech to achieve this isn’t there yet, and the current product is a necessary iteration to get to that future. Apple will of course heavily market/sell the current iteration of the product in the short term - but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to view this as a prototype given what we know about their longer term ambitions and the limitations of the current hardware.
  - jorvi 1y ago
    Pretty much what happened with the MacBook Air. The MacBook Air was preceded by the MacBook 2011 (yes, horrible model name to search). It had no keyboard backlight, an 11" crappy screen, short battery life and it overheated. But compared to contemporary laptops it was futuristic. What do you mean, a laptop you can slide into an envelope? But then it was followed up swiftly by a secondary model and then the MacBook Air. With the MacBook Air it really started to become a nice device. Another device that comes to mind is the iPod Touch 1, which didn't even have volume buttons.
    - zapzupnz 1y ago
      This timeline isn’t right. The MacBook Air preceded that particular MacBook, but they were different categories (Air didn’t have a Retina display, for example). The MacBook Air eventually took on the general unibody design of the 11” MacBook, then improved upon it in most ways.
      - jorvi 1y ago
        Yeah, you're right. I had to do some Google-fu, but the timeline is: MacBook 2008[0] into MacBook Air 2010[1]. The MacBook 2008 was the chunky unibody that would be inherited by the Pro line. This model had non-backlit keys on the cheaper model, backlit on the more expensive. Only 13", 1280x800. The Air 2010 had no backlit keys, and 11" or 13", 1366x768. Despite having the better processor it overheated quickly. The battery life was pretty abysmal too. There is also the MacBook Retina 2015 12" [2]. But this had all the modern amenities. The MacBook Retina would go on to be killed, but like you said, some of the design decisions would end up being inherited by the Air line. I guess I got my wires crossed in regards to the Air and the MacBook Retina 12". [0]https://support.apple.com/en-lk/112512 https://support.apple.com/en-lk/112512 [1]https://support.apple.com/en-lb/112580 https://support.apple.com/en-lb/112580 [2] https://support.apple.com/en-us/112442 https://support.apple.com/en-us/112442
  - andsoitis 1y ago
    > wants to ship is more like glasses than a helmet. But the tech to achieve this isn’t there yet, and the current product is a necessary iteration to get to that future. Why is that step necessary? How does it help on the path to glasses? Why not develop glasses that can block out peripheral light, have all the sensors, need little power etc. before selling a helmet? Those seem like intractable problems to solve in a glasses or contact lens form factor so my prediction is it stays at the helmet design OR we jump to direct neural solution. But all of this begs the question if use case still, which even at $500 or $1000 doesn’t seem compelling (with other VR and AR as proof points).
cptcobalt 1y ago
Prototype is not a charitable interpretation of the product. If you've been part of hardware, firmware, and software development processes, you'd really truly understand what prototypes are.
GeekyBear 1y ago
> According to the best estimates, a little more than 500,000 Vision Pro units have been sold. It's also worth remembering that Sony was only projected to be able to produce enough micro-OLED displays to make ~500,000 units in the first year.