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

bloomberg.com

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

#381

Post by charcircuit »

zinodaur wrote: post #221
BoppreH wrote: post #175

I'm very confused by Apple's strategy. As an owner of the original HTC Vive headset, its word-of-mouth power was off the charts. It was a blast at parties, and many of my friends bought their own $700+ devices after trying it. Here's what won them over: - Being able to try it themselves with little preparation ("put this on your head, tighten it here, and click these buttons on the controller"). You could even use it…

I bet they need time to ramp up their manufacturing. In the meantime - they can either artificially restrict the purchase of these things (what they are doing now), or have scalpers camp outside the stores and resell for 2-3x what apple are selling them for. If they can actually deliver on their promises - they will fucking sweep the VR market. Current VR headsets blow chunks. If the meta quest cost 10$ - people woul…

If the vision pro were free people wouldn't use it for normal things either because it is unpleasant compared to using a phone, monitor, macbook, tv.

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

#382

Post by XorNot »

gnicholas wrote: post #370
hghid wrote: post #197

Slightly tangential rant, but is anybody else becoming frustrated with the process of buying Apple products in Apple stores? For me, it started with the Apple Watch - I knew which one I wanted and was ready just to head down and buy one, but I was forced to sit through an entire "fitting" with patronising explanation on how to use the knob on the the side. Recently, I wanted to buy a new Phone. Again, I knew the one…

If you want to buy an iPhone with minimal interaction, just use the website or app, for in store pickup. Takes no time at all! I will agree that it’s ridiculous for customers to have to wait for an appointment to buy a watch band, which I’ve seen. There were several employees standing around at the time, inexplicably.

But what I want is to get a phone now. That's half the point of going to store - the place where the product is stocked.

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

#383

Post by ninkendo »

CrampusDestrus wrote: post #33
acer589 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not accurate. You had to have an appoint to try one, but not to buy one.

Fitting a headset is nothing like fitting an armband. If you are going to buy it you will need to try it and get it customized at point of sale

They plan to let you image your face with your iPhone to customize the fit online. They mentioned this in the keynote.

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

#384

Post by zmmmmm »

BoppreH wrote: post #175

I'm very confused by Apple's strategy. As an owner of the original HTC Vive headset, its word-of-mouth power was off the charts. It was a blast at parties, and many of my friends bought their own $700+ devices after trying it. Here's what won them over: - Being able to try it themselves with little preparation ("put this on your head, tighten it here, and click these buttons on the controller"). You could even use it…

it's a totally different model of generating demand. They don't need marketing, because they have a completely captive audience of loyal apple fans who will easily saturate the first year (or even two years) of supply for this product.

They are following Palmer Luckey's "Make people want it first model". Being supply limited, traditional marketing would only generate demand they can't satisfy. What they actually have to do is make sure every person who gets one has the most perfect experience possible.

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

#385

Post by brianwawok »

hghid wrote: post #197

Slightly tangential rant, but is anybody else becoming frustrated with the process of buying Apple products in Apple stores? For me, it started with the Apple Watch - I knew which one I wanted and was ready just to head down and buy one, but I was forced to sit through an entire "fitting" with patronising explanation on how to use the knob on the the side. Recently, I wanted to buy a new Phone. Again, I knew the one…

I just bought on the website and stuff showed up. The stores are for moms and kids.

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

#386

Post by CrampusDestrus »

ninkendo wrote: post #383
CrampusDestrus wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fitting a headset is nothing like fitting an armband. If you are going to buy it you will need to try it and get it customized at point of sale

They plan to let you image your face with your iPhone to customize the fit online. They mentioned this in the keynote.

You are confusing the face scan for FaceTime calls with the one they'll do at the store for optimal fitting

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

#387

Post by meroes »

hghid wrote: post #197

Slightly tangential rant, but is anybody else becoming frustrated with the process of buying Apple products in Apple stores? For me, it started with the Apple Watch - I knew which one I wanted and was ready just to head down and buy one, but I was forced to sit through an entire "fitting" with patronising explanation on how to use the knob on the the side. Recently, I wanted to buy a new Phone. Again, I knew the one…

While my dad shopped for one for my sister I had time to drink a coffee, find a Mother’s Day gift of chocolates, and do some work (the Apple Store outside Apple Park has all this).

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

#388

Post by [deleted] »

alpark3 wrote: post #350

I'm actually fine with the appointment setting, even if some others are bothered by the notion of an involved process. It's sort of like buying a toy anyways, so all the more fun for me to enjoy the steps of checking out. The thing I would hate , though, is limited availability with no real way of securing a spot. Nothing more annoying than trying to find any appointment spot available and praying that the units aren…

[deleted]

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

#389

Post by sq_ »

hghid wrote: post #197

Slightly tangential rant, but is anybody else becoming frustrated with the process of buying Apple products in Apple stores? For me, it started with the Apple Watch - I knew which one I wanted and was ready just to head down and buy one, but I was forced to sit through an entire "fitting" with patronising explanation on how to use the knob on the the side. Recently, I wanted to buy a new Phone. Again, I knew the one…

Slight tangent to your tangent, but, after a poor experience last week, I'm really disappointed in how Apple handles specifically support in their stores.

Historically, I've been able to just throw in a few little bits of "yup, I know how that works" so that their techs realize that I know what I'm talking about and let up with the patronizing assumptions about what I do and don't know. However, this time, when dealing with a newly-present heat issue during charging after that very store replaced the battery in the phone (so both a safety issue and one that would be warranty if it could be determined that it was caused by the repair), the tech just kept repeating that there was no way that their work could've caused it and going "these phones don't have a fan to cool them like our laptops". No matter what I said, I couldn't get them to have an actual discussion with me, so now I'm stuck waiting for a call from their safety support team since it's a heat issue.

Hopefully I can get somewhere with the phone support people, but it's really disappointing that they don't train their techs in the stores to feel out what a customer knows or at least drop some of the "oh the user doesn't know anything" if customers are showing that they do, in fact, know things.

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

#390

Post by zmmmmm »

qqtt wrote: post #345
throw47474777j wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not because the technology was bad, but because people just don't want it. It’s hard to see how anyone who has been following the technology could make this claim.

Can you expand on this comment? What have you seen in the AR market that leads you to believe the comment you are responding to is not accurate? From many observers, we have seen many AR/VR devices fail over the years. Some spectacularly (like Snap Spectacles), and some seem to be just throwing money into a furnace (like Oculus, which hasn't failed, but even with millions of devices sold doesn't seem to be reaching p…

Objectively, I think it's reasonable to say the technology was bad compared to what is/will be available in the next 12 months. There are actual material technology breakthroughs that really do fundamentally alter the equation (primarily: micro-OLED displays, significantly faster mobile processors and distortion-free pancake optics).

The original phrasing is ambiguous as to whether its acknowledging the tech was bad or not. But it doesn't seem reasonable to conclude that people don't want something until they can experience an implementation of it that isn't "bad".

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