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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

#661

Post by catchnear4321 »

fomine3 wrote: post #560
scarface_74 wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you think is going to buy a $3500 Vision Pro if not Apple enthusiasts?

Why xR enthusiasts don't? Though population is smaller, I suspect that they want to buy it more than average Apple enthusiasts (for %). They may already imagined use cases. They know that equip HMD is okay. xR sometimes needs enough big room but Apple enthusiasts haven't prepared for it.

you underestimate apple enthusiasts. they may not have already prepared, but the device isn’t already out.

besides, not all apple enthusiasts are wealthy. some will prepare last minute, by selling furniture to make space and help fund the headset. it doesn’t matter if that sounds silly, if it happens.

this is why apple goes slow. bring the ecosystem enthusiast to the object by attempting to integrate the object into the ecosystem first. start with the most eager, guide them in, let them deal with the growing pains, convert enough to full believers in the new object.

public-ish beta with an exclusive-ish signup fee.

apple isn’t merely training enthusiasts in how to use a headset. they are training fans that sell product. enthusiasts talk. easiest way into the ecosystem is with a guide, and even better if that’s a friend or loved one not getting paid to do so.

the least important part about this product is the product. it’s expanding the ecosystem into new territory. show apple enthusiasts that perhaps they want to be xr enthusiasts.

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

#662

Post by joshstrange »

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…

> seriously, if you've never tried, the jump from mouse+keyboard to hand tracking is like going from arrow keys to mouse+keyboard

Totally different experience here. It's interesting but the mouse still blows away anything VR has offered thus far. Games like Beat Saber /are/ a ton of fun and cool input method but but the novelty wears off fast. A majority of my friend group all bought VR headsets together and after 1-2 months of playing (often together) our usage has fallen off a cliff. I can't remember the last time I picked up my headset and I even bought lenses a couple months ago to try and reinvigorate my interest (I wear glasses/contacts but glasses always fog so I'd have to put in my contacts to play which was an annoying barrier) but I literally played it 1-2 more times before getting bored and moving on.

Current VR headsets are only good for gaming (yes, even the Meta Pro, it's resolution is joke for real productivity) and I have a limited interest in that method of gaming. I still play my Xbox, I still play games on my computer, I still play games on my phone but VR gaming isn't as interesting to me. It's novel but it wears off and the motion sickness is really annoying in certain types of games. All that coupled with absolute shit hand tracking (it's cool when it works but it fails too often), lackluster controllers (I can only take my sabers going wild when that's not what my hands are doing so many times), and poor graphics makes my headset a toy and not a particular good one.

We will see if Apple is able to improve on what's currently available and their track record has me hoping they succeed. Their vision, no pun intended, of AR/VR is much more in line with what I have been dreaming of for decades.

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

#663

Post by PheonixPharts »

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…

> Otherwise, just sell me the damn product!

I find the store purchasing experience to be frustrating as well, but if you order online and it's in stock, every Apple store I've lived near will deliver it to you door in 2-4 hours.

If you want to play with a product: go to the store, interact with it, and if you like it order it on your phone while you're there. It will be home not long after you are.

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

#664

Post by [deleted] »

alexdunmow wrote: post #602
pxc wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This problem (not Apple's fault) makes me pessimistic about the practicability of this process for people with high myopia. I've never ever been able to walk out of an optometry appointment with a pair of glasses. Could an Apple Store possibly be better than an eye doctor?

I only have normal subpar vision but I too have never been able to walk out of an optometry appointment with a pair of glasses. That's a thing? Optometrists keep prescription lens stock on hand?

[deleted]

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

#665

Post by smoldesu »

georgespencer wrote: post #360
hospitalJail wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is some blatant rhetoric. I cannot help but to call this out when I see it. > rank among the leading products in their categories by nearly any measure, from consumer satisfaction to performance benchmarks. When you say it generically like this, it has no meaning. Among? Top 50% You could say this about any company. Its marketing jargon from the best in the world at marketing. This is no different than when they…

> When you say it generically like this, it has no meaning. Among? Top 50% Here are two measures for you: 1) look at the last ten years of Consumer Reports smartphone rankings. How often is the latest iPhone ranked in the top 3? 2) look at the single core performance, battery life, and screen quality of the original 13" M1 MacBook Air. Now find me a laptop with commensurate performance at the same price point from th…

> Now find me a laptop with commensurate performance at the same price point from that time.

Sure: https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Laptop-Memory-Windows/...

> Apple has in fact publicly resisted repeated attempts from state and federal authorities to have it insert backdoors into iOS

They have also in fact been part of NSA surveillance programs for over a decade. It's nice that Android gets out ahead of these things by offering pure Open Source images.

1. Can you explain to me why "the marketers" are adopting the same strategy for Vision Pro's launch as they have for every other flagship Apple launch in the last decade?

Because lying works!

2. Can you explain why a company with an estimated NPS in range(+65,+80) even _needs_ the best marketers in the world?

Why wouldn't they? They're the largest company in the world, forced to compete in one of the most competitive advertising markets in the world. Publishing things that keeps those customers happy takes work, and Apple clearly does lots of "work" in that sense.

3. Can you explain why you seem to believe that it is the job of Apple's marketing team to "normalise" something ex post facto? Isn't it a well understood axiom of Apple's philosophy that until the technology is mature (in this case: thin / light) enough to create a resonant user experience, they will not enter a market?

Well, that's kinda what they did with the iPhone and the Apple Watch and even the iPad: https://youtu.be/3S5BLs51yDQ

I don't know what their end-goal is, but they seem to be perfectly aware that Apple products are not 'the norm' in many places.

4. Can you find me that mythical laptop computer to compete with MacBook Air?

See above. There are hundreds but anything with a Ryzen 5 or 7 from 2019-onward should smoke the M1, if only for lacking a big.LITTLE core architecture. Beating the M1 in CPU or GPU performance is... not difficult. Beating it's idle draw will be what people struggle with.

5. Can you see a trend looking back at the top 3 smartphones in Consumer Reports' surveys over the last decade?

Not when I look at the global chart, no.

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

#666

Post by anonymouse008 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #553
warning26 wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or the Apple Watch which was slow, with bad battery life and a horrible SDK. In Apple's defense, it is still two of those things. (No longer slow though!)

The development process from what I read is not great for Apple Watches. But at first, you couldn’t even create real apps just projections from the phone.

Thankfully the dev process has improved to ~5seconds to hit a breakpoint on a real watch - which is the only way to work with live HealthKit/HKWorkout data.

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

#667

Post by anonymouse008 »

tikkun wrote: post #54
anonymouse008 wrote: post #49

They need to go back and read the Newton’s postmortem. With every new detail about this devices release - it’s becoming clearer and clearer this device just is not ready. I was excited iPad apps could be directly ported over to VisionPro - but now after hacking with it in XCode - it’s evident this device and its APIs have no idea that customer intent drives context . This lack of customer awareness is so interesting…

> This lack of customer awareness is so interesting because all the designers in WWDC videos outline context with great labor. They forget a space is only part of an intent, and an intent is not a click or scroll. Intents demand a certain context, not the other way around - they’re scratching at old scars of starting with technology first then working to some customer experience. Could you elaborate on that? I'd like…

Every time I try to type something in response it comes out overly verbose -

Basically think of what you want to achieve, it’s the intent. Then think what happens if it happened automatically, that’s the ideal context (why pills for losing weight is so enticing). Then actually try to solve the problem in tech in the best way, and then you’ll see that the intent drives what tech context is truly great - as in you’ll end up creating dedicated hardware and software; what’s happened is that this platform has become good enough for many use cases and everyone is looking for the next best “good enough” when this current generation of tech platforms was built for a specific intent very different from what’s next

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

#668

Post by penjelly »

rvnx wrote: post #648
penjelly wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe the goal isnt only to sell product but also to make the customer think apple is smart and the customer needs them indefinitely to navigate the smartphone world. I wonder how their morning genius briefings go and what their plan is when a customer approaches

This is the main plan: A: Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome P: Probe politely to understand all the customer's needs P: Present a solution for the customer to take home today L: Listen for an resolve any issues or concerns E: End with a fond farewell and invitation to return

thanks. seems like the geniuses in the original commenter might be getting stuck on the second P

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

#669

Post by [deleted] »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #376
evandale wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it was seen as a toy for geeks and software developers who think t-shirts are an acceptable office attire despite being the most watch-like of the smartwatches. Source please! That's not how I remember the release, I recall it was very well recieved and sold out everywhere with the battery life being the biggest complaint. > I would never have gone to the office wearing a moto360. People would have given me fun…

> I doubt you'll find a source, this entire paragraph is you projecting your own insecurities onto everyone else. Sometimes I wonder if I live in the same world than some of the commenters here. Here is The Verge review of the Moto360: [ https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/6108947/moto-360-review ]. A few selected quotes by me: “It’s designed to prove that smartwatches don’t have to be ugly.”, “It’s not a gadget, it’s…

[deleted]

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

#670

Post by evandale »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #376
evandale wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it was seen as a toy for geeks and software developers who think t-shirts are an acceptable office attire despite being the most watch-like of the smartwatches. Source please! That's not how I remember the release, I recall it was very well recieved and sold out everywhere with the battery life being the biggest complaint. > I would never have gone to the office wearing a moto360. People would have given me fun…

> I doubt you'll find a source, this entire paragraph is you projecting your own insecurities onto everyone else. Sometimes I wonder if I live in the same world than some of the commenters here. Here is The Verge review of the Moto360: [ https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/6108947/moto-360-review ]. A few selected quotes by me: “It’s designed to prove that smartwatches don’t have to be ugly.”, “It’s not a gadget, it’s…

> Sometimes I wonder if I live in the same world than some of the commenters here.

I'm wondering the same thing.

You are arguing with people because you think Apple invented wearing watches as a fashion statement with their release of the Apple watch in 2015.

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