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Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

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Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#121
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you share your iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, AirPods or Apple Watch with friends and family? It’s touted as a work machine first and foremost right? Do you share your work laptop with others? Apple exec logic I’m sure. I get what you’re saying and it’s hard to describe (and never really does it justice) the experience of this technology. It’s something you have to experience yourself to understand.

I share my PlayStation and AppleTV with friends and family. And, yeah, my kid regularly uses my iPad and family members definitely use one another’s phones on occasion. Also the Vision Pro is expensive enough that not every family member will get one — if there’s one in the house it sure would be cool if everyone could use it.

I think it is just a weird coincidence, but in this thread price and share-ability seem to be negatively correlated.

Consoles, AppleTV, and iPads are at the lower end of the price range here, right? (Well, you can get an expensive iPad of course).

Laptop are expensive but personal, phones… definitely personal, tend to be a little more expensive maybe?

I dunno, it isn’t a straight line correlation but I don’t think the fact that the Vision Pro is expensive tells us much.

In have a Rift CV1, I enjoyed showing it off to people and got some party-game type things (Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes is great for showing the device off). But I don’t use it much solo, and I’ve shown it off to all my friends already, so I don’t use it much. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun, but it hasn’t integrated into my daily life.

If I were Apple—word of mouth is good, but I’d hope the Vision Pro becomes something that sort of gets embedded in people’s lives to the point where they don’t care to show it off (either because it becomes personal like a laptop, or because it becomes boring like a monitor).

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#122
As I wondered last month:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36253348

> Maybe Apple doesn't actually want to sell a lot of a first generation product they know will quickly evolve?

It's an impressive tech demo pushed out early to support the stock price, claim trademarks, gauge interest, and allow developers to begin building the ecosystem. Apple isn't going to go in with both feet on a product with dubious market potential.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#123
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if they’re magnetic and easy to swap, it sounds a LOT clunkier than just handing someone an iPad. People are going to lose the lenses all over the place. Heck, my dad loses his phone multiple times a week, necessitating a quick phone call to track it down. Are the lenses going to include built-in AirTags so people can locate them?

So how do you propose you make a good experience for people who need prescription glasses?

I don’t have a proposal. I’m skeptical of the entire market for this product. I’m taking a wait-and-see approach and I’m looking forward to reading one-year followups from early adopters.

Heck, I’m even skeptical of the iPad. I own one and I use it so seldomly that I have to charge the thing up from 0 every time I use it. But I recognize that a lot of people love them as consumption devices and a few as creation tools for some niche purposes, such as digital painting.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#124
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of Apple's marketing, for the vast majority of people this will be a media consumption device first and a media creation device second, just like the iPad. And you absolutely share your media consumption devices (television, game consoles, iPads) with your family/housemates.

And in a lot of families, parents will buy each child an iPad or a cheaper tablet. But there will be enough people who will by the headset for them to sell all they can make in the first year.

[deleted]

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#125
post #77

Apple masters the art of creating artificial product shortages for marketing purposes. They deny it, they say it's some manufacturing issue, but usually it's just marketing. Here is news from 12 years ago where they deny iPhone 4 shortages are just marketing. https://appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/20/apple_denies_crea...

Yes, because shipping a new product at volume is child’s play. Sony still can’t manufacture enough PS5’s to keep them in stock. They’ve only sold 38 million in almost 3 years - the number of iPhones Apple sells in less than a quarter. And you’re citing a denial as proof?

That's not my opinion. That's what Apple Analysts say is happening and they even predicted it. They observe the supply chain very closely and get information from the floor level. Apple does it it again and again in a way that is not realistic and analysts point it out.

When Apple seems to face less demand than expected they have 'problems'. Sony has real screw ups it hurts the company because demand is off the roof.

(Apple has the best supply chain management in the world)

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#126
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share my PlayStation and AppleTV with friends and family. And, yeah, my kid regularly uses my iPad and family members definitely use one another’s phones on occasion. Also the Vision Pro is expensive enough that not every family member will get one — if there’s one in the house it sure would be cool if everyone could use it.

I think it is just a weird coincidence, but in this thread price and share-ability seem to be negatively correlated. Consoles, AppleTV, and iPads are at the lower end of the price range here, right? (Well, you can get an expensive iPad of course). Laptop are expensive but personal, phones… definitely personal, tend to be a little more expensive maybe? I dunno, it isn’t a straight line correlation but I don’t think th…

I agree. I’m much more likely to allow someone to borrow a $329 low end iPad than my $1300 iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#127
post #24

Even if they came to my house to fit me with it I wouldn't buy it. What problem is it solving for someone other than Apple? We've been seeing this AR pipe-dream for 10+ years and it hasn't caught on. Not because the technology was bad, but because people just don't want it. What Apple is missing here is that people wanted the iPhone (a phone with an iPod built in) for years before it was even officially announced as…

AR feels like 3D TV. Mfgs want it badly so they have a 'next big thing' to sell. Otherwise they risk having their premium product line turn into a boring commodity.

I'm more excited for something like Humane's laser projection system or a less-intrusive, deep-learning driven assistant which uses voice and tactile feedback.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#128
post #34

Having messed with VR/AR tech since the DK2, the Apple Store presence could be the killer app that VR/AR needs. The manual learning process of ordering special fit lenses, adjusting the headsets, etc would be a great fit with Apple’s store model.

The big win I think will be the App Store rather than just the Apple Store. the App Store will provide reducing the need to take the headset off to use general apps. When you use an oculus, if you need to do something like reply to a text, check an email or reply to someone on social media, you have to take off your headset or kill your current task and switch to virtual desktop. Having all your iOS apps on it, and b…

>*Software differentiator*

-

The reasons I would not like to have one of these devices ;

* Apple's closed moat

* App store lock-in

* 'DLC' model whereby not a single thing you do on this $3,500 device will be free - and no matter what app you choose, Apple takes 30% of whatever revenue stream that app wants...

* The piss-poor apple fix-service market, and their shitty designs of the iphone which break so fn easily that VCs (YC+) have had to invest in cottage industry of phone repairs

I've had iphones since the first day of launch... and while I prefer them over android, I still hate ios ecosystem.

The infra-mechanics of it are awesome, but compared to the smarmy and condescending greedy Apple, i still hate ios.

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#129
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think that was important in establishing it as a normal thing to wear Apple did not need to normalize the wearing of watches. Watches have been luxury fashion items for hundreds of years.

Apple absolutely needed to normalise the idea that a £300 black puck was Luxury Fashion. See what happened to Google Glass for when a company fails to make a wearable product fashionable, and we've been wearing expensive glasses for hundreds of years. Watch nerds still shun it today, although Apple has managed to break through as much as they needed to make it a success.

No, they didn't

Re: Apple plans a slow, appointment-only rollout of Vision Pro

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s about one apple store for every twenty Walmarts.

I’m not going to drive out of my way to pick up some Rustler jeans. But I will to buy electronic gear or even to get my right AirPod replaced that I dropped in the water when I was on a boat in Cabos…

Yeah or in my case the apple store becomes a part of a trip, there's not one near my home but there is one near the beach house I rented this year, so when I wanted a better fitting waterproof watch band I just baked a trip to that store into my trip itinerary.

If I were in the target market for the vision pro I would totally schedule an appointment and drive a couple of hours to get a curated experience and feel confident I'd come home with the right combination of lenses and everything.

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