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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

#521

Post by stouset »

post-it wrote: post #179
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…

They're going for the same approach they always do. You don't need word-of-mouth if you have every product placement slot. People won't get hyped on the Vision Pro by their best friend, they'll get hyped on it by their favourite YouTuber.

After decades of hearing about Apple only being kept afloat by their indoctrinated, rabid fan base (whose numbers curiously appeared to grow exponentially with each passing year), Apple “always” making sales only by ad spots and not word of mouth is certainly a hot take.

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

#522

Post by fomine3 »

goosedragons wrote: post #9
shipscode wrote: post #4

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.

Conversely the fact that you need special fit lenses and a store appointment means its going to be hard to test out and hard to buy. You're probably not going to be able to wander past the Apple store in the mall and take a quick peek in and play with the Vision Pro like you can with their other products like the iPad. Nor will testing your friend's necessarily be a good experience. Plus even in the U.S Apple Store's…

Good point. Telling how xR device good is one of the most difficult thing for consumer market. Trying is the only way but it's annoying to setup. Let's see how Apple solves this.

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

#523

Post by fomine3 »

Kerbonut wrote: post #20
amelius wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the fact that you need special fit lenses and a store appointment Sounds like a serious shortcoming if you can't share the device with friends and family.

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.

Apple doesn't want to share even for iPad, as they don't implement multi user feature (except educational usage). I expect that it's same for Vision Pro, and it seems to natural for me. (I argue iPad should support multi user or guest)

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

#524

Post by froggit »

unreal37 wrote: post #297
isykt wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened when you told them, “I’m all set without a demo, please just ring me up ?” Did they refuse?

Near me, they keep the products locked up in the back room, and the person who you talk to on the floor often doesn't have direct access and needs to find the person who has access to get them the product. It makes sense. There's not a pile of 1000 Macbooks on a pallet back there. It's locked up in a cage, and they go in and get one at a time. But makes for a slow shopping experience.

This may not come as a surprise, but the practice of locking up expensive shit so people can't go grab stuff they aren't supposed to isn't unique to the Apple Store.

I've worked places that used this kind of process. It doesn't turn a 10 minute visit into a 50 minute visit without some kind of underlying issue blocking the cage pull from happening. Something along the lines of an interpersonal communication failure (forgot to request cage pull, person with key forgot/never got the request or the person with the key has gone into hiding ), a technical fluke (cage has electronic lock and it's EMP day), or a freak accident (person with the key, as well as the key itself, got disintegrated by ball lightning). As long as there isn't anything blocking, a cage pull is 10-15 min. If the person with the key was busy with a client, the requestor would normally take that over so they can run to the cage without the delay of having to finish that client.

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

#525

Post by bluepod4 »

replygirl wrote: post #512
jerojero wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how representative you are of the average consumer though? I imagine their pricing structure works well to upsell people on average, which is why they have maintained it for long. Also, why would someone like you even go to the store; I had no issues whatsoever buying a macbook from their website. No reps, no nothing, I set my specs and clicked buy and a few days later had my product. I think most people wit…

i'm with you on the first two lines but the idea that a certain class of person is no longer welcome at _stores_ is pretty wild

Is it? I see homeless people who aren’t even stealing get kicked out of places like Target all of the time.

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

#526

Post by isykt »

p1esk wrote: post #468
isykt wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened when you told them, “I’m all set without a demo, please just ring me up ?” Did they refuse?

Yes. The last time I was there to buy an iphone they said: “Someone will help you in 30 minutes, let me put your name in the queue. Oh, and you have to go stand and wait in the corner. No, you cannot leave the store to get coffee, if you do you will lose your place in the queue.” I counted 14 workers and maybe 3x as many customers in the store, with at least 5 workers just standing around doing nothing.

It’s clever. They’re essentially hacking your attention by taking advantage of the fact that you already signaled you have money and are willing to spend it. Getting you in the store and putting the hardware in front of you is the hardest part, and you did that yourself.

This is why people on a budget go to the grocery store with a list. The physical experience is designed to sell you more, and Apple has the margins to to design the fuck out of that experience.

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

#527

Post by BizarreByte »

ajmurmann wrote: post #506
BizarreByte wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one in the whole on Nova Scotia. Not everywhere in an American city.

Most people live in urban areas though. Nova Scotia has only a million inhabitants and half of them live in Halifax where I assume the Apple Store is. If something needs fitting and prescription lenses it seems reasonable that a physical location needs to be visited and this is the kind of trade off one makes when moving to a rural area. I'd bet that this will still be convenient for the vast majority of the populati…

I mean you asked how sparse Apple stores can be and I gave an example.

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

#528

Post by gpm »

rchaud wrote: post #252
scarface_74 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Apple introduced the iPhone, they had lines of people waiting to buy one without ever trying it. The same was true with the iPad. Apple sold 10 million iPhones in the first year. But 10 million was such a small number, that the chance of you seeing one in the wild wasn’t that common. Apple is already seeding journalist with demos and it’s getting enough buzz from people in YouTube who were invited to use one and…

Buzz is cheap. Matt Damon and Larry David made crypto ads, Apple's not going to get very far with a slow drip of influencer marketing.

If Apple succeeds to the same extent that bitcoin succeeded... no one is getting fired.

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

#529

Post by gnicholas »

sitzkrieg wrote: post #395
gnicholas wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

you know, i tried this first time recently. placed order at 10am. no pickup that day. ready at 1pm next day! go to store. had to wait ten minutes after i wated at the door to checkin my appt (why). whole time employees small talking me. guy finally finds my box and shoves it in my hands and i was finally free from that cursed overpriced garbagehole

Do you know if the item was in stock at that store? I've been able to do same-day pickups, even right after an item was launched. Not all variants are in stock, of course.

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

#530

Post by hospitalJail »

georgespencer wrote: post #391
hospitalJail wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly bad faith and incivility, calling a MBA marketing class high school level just because it doesn't fit your world view. You share links to random websites that fit your narrative. Its dangerous to listen to your opinion, you might get mureded like jamal khashoggi with a pegasus hack. Or maybe it will be mere nudes like Jeff Bezos. Has anyone gotten hacked with Pegasus on Android? I couldn't find any examples.…

Isn't it funny that in your previous reply, you suggested that if you offered a rebuttal of my point around performance, I would try to move the goalposts: > Let me pull up single and multithreaded bench marks. "Oh not that measure". "Well it was among, top 36.6 percentile". And now you say: > You share links to random websites that fit your narrative. Its dangerous to listen to your opinion, If you can reject the ma…

>(Sent from my IBM Thinkpad.)

Not even marketing can stop you/your corp from buying the best product huh?

Anyway, check out some benchmark websites one day.

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