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Apple’s new headset meets reality

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Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#491

Post by rswail »

It's interesting reading the comments here. When mobile (cell) phones first arrived in the US, they were a status symbol for rich people.

When they arrived in Australia, the first adopters were trades people. They could be contacted anywhere at anytime.

I can see huge markets for a good industrial AR/VR at building sites and industrial plants for plans, inspections, wiring, plumbing etc etc.

Markets for warehouse and logistics, shelf stocking, inventory, etc etc.

People already get provided with ruggedized tablets that have replaced ruggedized laptops.

If it's really good (Magic Leap fake demo good) AR, then that's the equivalent of an F35 pilot's helmet in terms of situational awareness, so can be used when managing construction equipment, cranes, diggers, etc etc.

Lots of different possibilities here that the new Apple Silicon and other potential (who knows for real yet outside Apple) technology advances could introduce.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#492

Post by ahoho »

rswail wrote: post #491

It's interesting reading the comments here. When mobile (cell) phones first arrived in the US, they were a status symbol for rich people. When they arrived in Australia, the first adopters were trades people. They could be contacted anywhere at anytime. I can see huge markets for a good industrial AR/VR at building sites and industrial plants for plans, inspections, wiring, plumbing etc etc. Markets for warehouse and…

I absolutely see the use case, and I believe AR is already being tested in some heavy industry sectors (eg oilfield services). That said, it’s not really in Apple’s wheelhouse as a primarily consumer tech company.

Not directly relevant, but I’m realizing the relative ubiquity of Apple Stores are a competitive advantage. I assume you can test an Oculus headset at the occasional Best Buy, but I suspect the experience isn’t as polished

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#493

Post by gfodor »

My short list of expected requirements for an Apple HMD to be released, I posted on Twitter a while ago.

- Continual eye contact (reverse passthrough)

- All day wearable (not all day use)

- Rapid toggling of AR (via flip-up, probably)

- Fashnionable to wear when powered off

I believe this article confirms all of these now, and if that's the case I believe they may have cracked the code. All of these need to be there imo for this to be the beginning of the shift to mainstreaming of AR/VR.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#494

Post by rcme »

jnsie wrote: post #72
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #13

I don't think there is a consumer market for head mounted AR anymore - if there ever really was. That makes me sad having been in AR since 2010 - and knowing what we could do with it if done right. I just don't think society currently has an appetite for a $3000 product that gives the wearer visual superpowers (that is the promise after all) and is an impossible to ignore distinction between classes. I honestly think…

> I don't think there is a consumer market for head mounted AR anymore anymore, or yet? I think the biggest barriers are form factor and price. History suggests that price of such devices will increase over time. Whether the tech can be squeezed into a form factor that will be desirable to the masses is another problem altogether. The fact that apple (according to this article) have not managed to do it suggests to m…

I think there is a much more important question, which is: what can you do with the tech that makes it valuable at any price point? Like cool, I can augment my vision. Now what? Now much... at least from what I've seen.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#495

Post by themagician »

jimmySixDOF wrote: post #458
themagician wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly enough, the reason I have so many VR headsets is because I mostly give demos to non-tech people. Quest Pro still gets the, "Pretty cool, but why is it so blurry," comments. Not as much as other headsets, but still enough that it will never fly for general use. Meta, to their credit, does a good job of masking the poor optics by keeping texture detail to a minimum in their own software and encouraging developers…

It is easy to miss the forrest for the trees, which I think is what is happening if your users can't get into immersion because it's not instant Retina focus. Good enough does not need to be perfect once the experience kicks in and you are actively engaged in doing something you otherwise could not do in the real world. If I'm at the theater; yes, if asked, I might tell you the seat could be more comfortable this way…

If 50% of the screen at the theater was out of focus it would probably give people headaches and they'd walk out. But with VR some people expect users to just "deal with it" and then wonder why VR isn't taking off.

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#496

Post by oblio »

stocknoob wrote: post #403
oblio wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't have $3k of disposable income for a single non key purchase. How big even is this market, at $3k? 50 million people worldwide?

Next thing, you’ll tell me Apple wanted to charge $5k (inflation adjusted) for their new products in the 70s, and we know how that went. People simply don’t pay for new, powerful technology.

If you want to make it out like it was some huge success, remember IBM PC clones ruled the desktop market for decades, not Apple stuff :-)

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#498

Post by JP44 »

cubefox wrote: post #459
danpalmer wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From the information available so far, the Apple headset will be fairly close to Meta's Oculus Quest in terms of hardware That's not really accurate. The rumours suggest optics at least as good as the Meta Quest Pro ($1k), possibly with a substantial move forward from there. They suggest resolution of 3k per eye, significantly above the Meta Quest Pro, and using Micro LED for a big improvement on the screen door ef…

You are misunderstanding what I said. Of course the Apple headset would have much higher quality components. But it is similar to the Oculus Quest in that it is a standalone device which uses external cameras to track the environment. It's easy to use. My point was that it seems consumers don't care about expensive high performance VR headsets. They want something that is both easy to use and inexpensive: The unusual…

Do think that it is a valid point. But I have the feeling Apple is aiming at productivity rather than gaming since it is running rxOS with M2’s and doesn’t seem to include controllers of any kind (does have hand-eye control) which some games require for immersion (I.m.o.), but I may be reading your comment wrong.

May be far fetched but, it could be a monitor replacement for offices; got supplied with a mbp and 4 monitors, 2 for at home and on desk on location, some coworkers 6 in total; that monitors alone add up from € 2-3 K fairly quick (fairly nice 27” 4K displays). I’d gladly take the headset over the monitors if it’s not to heavy; The ‘AR’ mode could mean I would be able to see my laptop screen and keyboard and display the other screens using the overlay and switch between them (& other operations) using hand gestures/ moving my head/ looking somewhere. Would also save me a ton of space.

Edit: rxOS instead of iOS, the marketing material seems to mention day to day usage mostly

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#499

Post by badpun »

bredren wrote: post #118
tguedes wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Between Apple Silicon, Apple Watch, AirPods, and scaling operations to be able to sell the amount of products they do in a year, that is hard to argue against being an overwhelming success for Tim Cook as CEO. Is it equal to the legacy of Apple under Jobs? Definitely not. But how many other companies/people released 3 revolutionary products?

It is hard to not compare the breakthrough product release count between Jobs and Cook. If that is the measure, then we have to bring in Jobs' tenure as not only CEO but company founder that stretched 25 years as CEO, 1976 to 1985 and 1997 to 2011. Cook only took the reins in 2011, and at that time arguably the company should not have focused on releasing yet more revolutionary products. iPhone is the most successful…

> iPhone is the most successful consumer product in history,

I'd say it's probably Coca-Cola?

Re: Apple’s new headset meets reality

#500

Post by sheepybloke »

realharo wrote: post #410
wintermutestwin wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't think there is a consumer market for head mounted AR anymore - if there ever really was. All it takes is a killer app to come along. AR music instrument instruction is my bet. If Apple released this one app along with the glasses it would become a massive hit.

That sounds like a massive gimmick to me. Something that looks cool in demos, but doesn't really translate well into practical use. Might as well just buy a keyboard with lights built into the keys.

See Meta's recent VR commercials. They have a virtual mixer that they use in a "jam session" but it looks completely impractical to use.
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