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Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

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Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#131

Post by illiarian »

dev_tty01 wrote: post #60
smoldesu wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if I agree. What is there to disrupt? Really think about that statement for a minute. Maybe telepresence if you market it right, but the money is all in gaming and social use. And if you're gonna buy a headset, would you rather get the $300 one with Beat Saber and VR Chat, or cough up $3,000 for FaceTime in VR? I think Meta has done all they can here. It's frankly a shock they managed to sell over 10 mil…

Well said. There is no Apple-scale market to disrupt. If the largest market for the wearable remains as gaming, Apple is in a very poor position since they have always only begrudgingly embraced gaming. This isn't about disruption, this is about creating a new market. If I think of myself as an example, I don't have interest in the gaming angle. If it is comfortable enough and the experience is great, I might buy it…

> Apple is in a very poor position since they have always only begrudgingly embraced gaming.

On the other hand they wholeheartedly embraced gaming on mobile (their AppStore page is nothing but gaming, realy), so who knows

Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#132

Post by nicoburns »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #47
voisin wrote: post #28

Initial product will be weak, just like the original iPhone (no App Store, slow, poor battery life, etc) and Apple Watch (no development, no health tracking, small screen, poor battery life). The thing about Apple is not to judge based on v.1 but to watch the iteration. They are the most persistent company in the world. Compare to Google which seems to have ADHD. Apple will iterate and iterate and in 5 years we’ll al…

Yeah but $3K.

That would be not dissimilar to the launch strategy of the macbook air, which was ridiculously expensive at launch, presumably didn't sell in huge quanitities during the first few generations, but gave them something to build on which they eventually turned into a mainstream product.

Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#133

Post by woobar »

hnbear wrote: post #59
etempleton wrote: post #41

If it is as described I think it is insane for Apple to launch this product. Comparing it to the state of the Apple Watch is pretty strange because if nothing else the Apple Watch was functional, self contained, worked, and was under $1,000. Even if it didn’t work you could put it on and ignore it. A VR/AR headset is nothing like that and at $3,000 is a significant investment for most everyone. But who knows. I haven…

Watches, phones, and music players also all existed for a long time, and weren't a huge leap. Sure, smart watches were called revolutionary, but the first Apple Watch told the time and was fun but mostly unusable for much else. The notifications popped up, but actual interaction was so slow. But that's fine. It was great to have a watch (a >100 year old device), that shows texts. Same for phones - it was just iterati…

> first Apple Watch told the time and was fun but mostly unusable for much else.

I had 1st gen watch till 2019 and my usage pattern hardly changed with the newer versions:

- clock and weather information

- notifications

- Apple Pay

- exercise tracking

What else are you using it now?

Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#134

Post by p1esk »

rocketbop wrote: post #125
p1esk wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having to sit sounds pretty amazing. Assuming it can match my monitor quality. I think of a headset as headphones for your eyes.

> Not having to sit sounds pretty amazing. Well you’re not going to be able to walk around unless it’s some AR mix, but I can imagine it being very confusing, with trips over furniture galore.

Sure, we need to try it before judging one way or another.

Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#135

Post by illiarian »

specialist wrote: post #92

Jobs referred to early Apple TV as a "hobby". For years. Time enough for a nascent market to mature, for the technology to catch up with the ambitions. That's how Apple/Cook should refer to Apple VR/AR. Under promise, over deliver. Projecting 1m unit sales the first year is nutty. Sure, they might sell that many. And then what? Also, the initial models should be over priced, specifically targeting sexy use cases. Rid…

> Under promise, over deliver.

But Apple TV still hasn't delivered, and its first version was released 16 years ago. It's still unusable for anything but the most basic tasks, and is a mess as a product: it fails as amedia hub, it fails as a smart device hub, it fails as a compute hub...

Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#136

Post by rocketbop »

r0fl wrote: post #123
glass3 wrote: post #120

In which way will they make it different from the Meta headsets? The Apple branding won't be enough to turn an average headset into a successful product. My guess would be that their headset is just a set of goggles that requires an iPhone for computation. Then, they can sell them for $300 or even $150. The article suggests that VR is a tool for long-distance relationships. For $300, that could become possible.

Apple sells WHEELS for a Mac Pro for $700! You think that same Apple will sell, what may be a totally new revolutionary product of less than half the cost of WHEELS? Try again.

> Apple sells WHEELS for a Mac Pro for $700

Not many of them though.

AirPods are 200-300 and an absolute cash cow, and probably system sellers for Mac and iPhone.

Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#137

Post by [deleted] »

paxys wrote: post #34
voisin wrote: post #28

Initial product will be weak, just like the original iPhone (no App Store, slow, poor battery life, etc) and Apple Watch (no development, no health tracking, small screen, poor battery life). The thing about Apple is not to judge based on v.1 but to watch the iteration. They are the most persistent company in the world. Compare to Google which seems to have ADHD. Apple will iterate and iterate and in 5 years we’ll al…

Where was this persistent iteration and overnight success with Homepod, Airpower, butterfly keyboards, touchbar, force touch, MobileMe, Ping? Apple has had its share of failures like any other company, and kills products like any other company. There is plenty of precedence for their AR headset to just fizzle out.

[deleted]

Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#138

Post by shostack »

iamleppert wrote: post #35

HoloLens is (soon to be was) a great AR device. Certainly useable and competent but it suffered from the same issue over and over: once the gee wiz demo was over, outside of a few very niche uses, people went back to using their laptops and smartphones. Because it’s easier to just pull out your smartphone, get whatever you need done, then put it back in your pocket. This rapid and random access is why people love sma…

Generally agree. Read Rainbow's End for an example of what reduced friction UI is like for AR. But it is enabled by input and display devices that are several generations ahead.

Heck, even Cyberpunk 2077 is somewhat interesting in this regard. I started with a Corpo character and realized the persistent screen elements with a news ticker, some other data etc were interesting in a game world I knew nothing about. I imagine having extremely limited but immediately present text overlays would be exceptionally useful to replace my phone or watch if the device enabling it was of a sufficiently unassuming form factor that didn't take work to use.

If Apple can give me the equivalent of what airpods did you headphones with cords but for smartphones, even if in an extremely limited capacity to just say, iMessage at first, that would be huge.

Then give me a haptic ring I can fidget with that, when combined with a purpose built virtual keyboard, can do text entry, and that is a killer app IMHO.

Re: Apple’s Best Hope for New Headset: a Smartwatch-Like Trajectory

#139

Post by dwallin »

etempleton wrote: post #103
Closi wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gamers aren’t going to want to buy this thing unless you can plug it into a PC and have it function as a regular VR headset and the Meta Quest crowd isn’t going to shell out 3 grand. Maybe Apple has just worked out that they can't build a good VR headset at a level of quality that they are proud of for a sales price of less than £3k with today's technology? Apple probably isn't going to compete with the Meta Quest,…

I think they are in a position to do that. My bigger concern would be if that is what it is—a mostly VR headset with some AR capabilities, then its killer app will be games. But to appeal to that audience and developers they are going to need to be a bit more receptive to how that industry works. They will probably see some success regardless, as they did with games on iOS, but they would need to embrace a certain op…

Off the top of my head, here's a short list of fields that could make some use of a professional 3d headset:

- 3d modeling/sculpting

- Architecture

- Interior Design (great uses for passthrough AR here)

- Product Design / CAD

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