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Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

ft.com

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Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#71

Post by PavleMiha »

paxys wrote: post #53
ryanmcdonough wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They literally had hands on demos for journalists after the event...

Yet not a single one of them was allowed to even take a picture of themselves wearing one. Why was that?

Speculating, but Apple wanted to make sure that the only people photographed using the headset were models and actors who are very attractive. That way whenever a news outlet runs a story about it, they have to use the picture of the attractive/cool people using it, and people make an association that the headset makes people attractive/cool.

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#72

Post by wlesieutre »

ckluis wrote: post #38
wlesieutre wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may have to go to third party accessories for that https://caviar.global/catalog/virtual-reality

WTAF! I mean I know there is a market for everything, but a gold-plated vision pro… and a Rolex-embedded in a smartphone case… To each their own.

I obviously don't know anyone who would buy this, but my impression of the product category is that it's for rich people who can't cope with owning the same Vision Pro as any chump with $3500 sitting around. How is it supposed to be a status symbol if it doesn't cost $40k like their watch?

Same with a Rolex embedded phone case, having all the money in the world won't buy you a fancier iPhone than anybody else, so if you're intent on turning everything you own into an excessive status symbol you have to take your device that already has a built-in clock, and add an less accurate but handmade and more expensive watch to it.

I have a hard time imagining who exactly would be impressed by that, but what do I know?

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#73

Post by cma »

paxys wrote: post #53
ryanmcdonough wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They literally had hands on demos for journalists after the event...

Yet not a single one of them was allowed to even take a picture of themselves wearing one. Why was that?

The passthrough face requires a face scan thing that wasn't ready yet. For controlling avatars viewed in a virtual mirror I think I read they gave you an avatar of someone else to control.

If the passthrough eyes were available, clickbait journalism would also probably do things like intentionally cross their eyes and get a goofy look on it, then write and article about how the headset will make you look extra goofy.

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#74

Post by hedora »

LegitShady wrote: post #14
Tepix wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they will have problems selling a few 100,000 units at $3500. The first testers report that the displays are indeed extraordinary and using them as desktop monitor replacements is feasible. That alone is a great use case.

again, the issue is development dollars. Its great that its high resolution displays, the question is if your company wants to dump hundreds of thousands of development dollars making something for the vision pro when its not clear there's a consumer market for them, or who the target market is. Sure apple could sell 100,000 anything. The question is are you going to be able to make any money developing for apple's $…

They’ve been slowly shipping pieces of the ecosystem for a while. The iPhone has had AR for years, and tvOS has moved to 3D icons already (you can move your finger on the remote touchpad to see the parallax and material reflections.

Also, iPad has had lidar for a while, which you can use to 3d scan stuff when building out AR apps.

I hope someone will find more compelling use cases for the hardware, but it will definitely have an ecosystem on day one.

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#75

Post by charcircuit »

criddell wrote: post #56
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would absolutely buy this argument were it not for Apple's own portrayal of it during unveiling that shown a person watching movies, which is not commonly a professional role ( as in, it is intended as a consumer product ). That is not to say that I think it is a bad idea. I am not an apple fanboy and I want to get my hands on it if I can convince wife it is not a waste.

Apple recently released Logic Pro and Final Cut for the iPad. It wouldn’t surprise me if that work was done in part to support those apps on the headset at release. It may have looked like that person in the demo was watching a movie, but maybe they were making a movie…

Who will be uploading gigabytes of videos to a headset to edit movies with a heavy device on your face instead of to a workstation where you have actual monitors and don't have to keep something heavy on you. Apple already sells machines that are good and comfortable for doing those things. Doing them in VR doesn't automatically make them better.

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#76

Post by gruez »

PavleMiha wrote: post #71
paxys wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet not a single one of them was allowed to even take a picture of themselves wearing one. Why was that?

Speculating, but Apple wanted to make sure that the only people photographed using the headset were models and actors who are very attractive. That way whenever a news outlet runs a story about it, they have to use the picture of the attractive/cool people using it, and people make an association that the headset makes people attractive/cool.

Surely there are attractive/cool looking journalists?

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#77

Post by taeric »

MBCook wrote: post #28
LegitShady wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

again, the issue is development dollars. Its great that its high resolution displays, the question is if your company wants to dump hundreds of thousands of development dollars making something for the vision pro when its not clear there's a consumer market for them, or who the target market is. Sure apple could sell 100,000 anything. The question is are you going to be able to make any money developing for apple's $…

“Out there” for who? Apple has customers who will buy multiple $15,000 configuration Mac Pros without batting an eye. That’s the price of the tool and for what they’re working on (perhaps a $250,000,000 movie) it’s justified. The Vision Pro, as announced, clearly isn’t much of a consumer product. The price is too high. But that’s not surprising, it does have ‘Pro’ in the name. When the Vision or Vision Air. come out…

Agreed that the price of the tool can be justified by the value it helps create. I'm always bemused to know that most giant movies are not made with Apple tech, though? Seems render farms in custom linux toolchains are the norm, more than the tools that we so often see in marketing.

Or has that changed? I'd be lying if I said I keep up to date on this stuff.

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#78

Post by Waterluvian »

placatedmayhem wrote: post #51
Waterluvian wrote: post #22

I am very pessimistic about the future of VR beyond it being super nice for niche cases. But I think there’s something fundamentally good about: 1) Apple taking a stab at it, because it’s the kind of thing where UX really matters and Apple does UX well. 2) Apple not being trapped in the “if we can’t sell a billion of them then why even bother?” mindset that so many other companies get trapped in, often because they’r…

> 2) Apple not being trapped in the “if we can’t sell a billion of them then why even bother?” mindset that so many other companies get trapped in, often because they’re not bursting at the seams with cash, talent, and runway. I feel like the iPhone mini being only two years long is a strong counterpoint to this. There's a small hope for an iPhone 15 mini, but with no 14 mini, it's a long shot. It accounted for 6% of…

A smaller iPhone isn’t exactly an exploratory venture into a new market. And loud minorities don’t make a market.

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#79

Post by theshrike79 »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #40
MBCook wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Out there” for who? Apple has customers who will buy multiple $15,000 configuration Mac Pros without batting an eye. That’s the price of the tool and for what they’re working on (perhaps a $250,000,000 movie) it’s justified. The Vision Pro, as announced, clearly isn’t much of a consumer product. The price is too high. But that’s not surprising, it does have ‘Pro’ in the name. When the Vision or Vision Air. come out…

I would absolutely buy this argument were it not for Apple's own portrayal of it during unveiling that shown a person watching movies, which is not commonly a professional role ( as in, it is intended as a consumer product ). That is not to say that I think it is a bad idea. I am not an apple fanboy and I want to get my hands on it if I can convince wife it is not a waste.

The person wasn't exactly living in subsidised housing and living on food stamps.

People who have the money WILL buy these as early adopters, but it's not a mass-market product.

Like the comment above said, the real game changer will be the Vision and Vision Air or whatever they're called. Either the tech gets cheaper or Apple will pare down the sensors and features to a point that satisfies the applications devs have built for the Pro and shown that they are viable.

The pass-through eye display for example is just 100% Apple flexing, not something a "normal" user will ever need. That's a few hundred off the price.

Re: Apple forced to make major cuts to Vision Pro headset production plans

#80

Post by theshrike79 »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #42

What kind of software, speaking as an independent developer, is going to work well with a market of only some 100k's of users globally? Yikes...

What kind of software would you sell to corporations or rich early adopters?

We'll see in Q1/2024 when the Vision Pro comes out for real.

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