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Apple's Mixed-Reality Headset Now Said to Be in 'Final Sprint' and 'Delivery Stage' Ahead of WWDC

The optics in existing consumer VR headsets are pretty dang bad, so some level of optimism is probably warranted for this thing.

I've messed around with the nreal air for a bit, and the clarity of its display makes it much more usable as a display replacement compared to something like the meta quest 2. The two devices are drastically different, but a device that can translate a similar level of clarity into a relatively wide fov (while also staying fairly compact) would be game-changing.

This gen1 might be too pricy for most people to deal with right now, but there's a decent shot of Apple blowing people away with the tech they have on their hands. A mixed bag combination of the gen1 macbook air, ipad, and apple watch seems to be a decent enough starting point to get this product category started off.
 
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harriska2 said:
I thought the same thing about my husband and son. Then 2020 happened, a heart attack, and touchless payments exploded. Now we all wear a watch, daily. And my son now answers his phone and texts.
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Sure. And then there are those of us who wear actual watches on our wrists and don’t want or need a tech toy taking up that valuable space.

Traditional watches are jewelry. I have a lot invested in them. The ugly Apple Watch doesn’t fit my style and never will, no matter how functional it becomes. And of course I’m not alone.
 
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MacWiz_007 said:
I have to respectfully disagree. VR will mostly be terrible for society. Look how bad things have gotten just with (anti) social media. VR is going to destroy many people's lives because they'd rather be in a fantasy land than deal with living in reality. Reminds me of a painting I saw a few years back where this disheveled looking kid, living in absolute squaller, has a VR headset on with a little half smile on his face.
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It's coming. Maybe this year, maybe in 10. There is no stopping it. This is our future.


d09f9349f571280b6aba18d0ea20c52701f09d66.jpeg



I for one, can't wait to open my wallet and give Apple $2000+ to join the brave new world, I'm so excited for this!!!!!
 
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Surf Monkey said:
You better read up. Apple was a wild success from go.



Not really. But I can see how in hindsight it might seem that way to you.



You’ve talked to “Apple?”

My comments stand. This thing is bound to be Tim Cook’s Newton. A drastic failure that will cost the company dearly.
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Apple being a success and the PC industry having a slow takeoff are two different things, and my point about PCs is a reflection of how we should think about VR/AR. This is going to be a long road with a lot of clunky tradeoffs in early devices that don't seem Apple-like because modern Apple hasn't operated that way. Early Apple, very much operated that way.
 
Aston441 said:
It's coming. Maybe this year, maybe in 10. There is no stopping it. This is our future.

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As negative as I am about Apple’s entry into AR/VR, I have to disagree with this sort of dooms day scenario. People claimed that written words would ruin humanity. Then they thought that printed words would ruin society. Then they thought that recorded sound would ruin society. Then they thought that moving pictures would ruin society. Then they thought television would ruin society. Then they thought that AR/VR would ruin society…
 
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riverfreak said:
Put whatever numbers you wish in the blanks, man. So sorry you’re tired of schooling everyone. It’s a heavy burden.
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So, you're saying that $4.5B US Revenue with 4-5M in sales first year is a success for a new product when available customer pool totals over 2.5B?

I would say that is not even remotely a survivable market for R&D costs alone, much less marketing, sales pushes, and economies of scale sustainability given how long it has taken to even arrive at the market (if at all) and its suspected price tag.
 
DarthBuzzard said:
Apple being a success and the PC industry having a slow takeoff are two different things, and my point about PCs is a reflection of how we should think about VR/AR. This is going to be a long road with a lot of clunky tradeoffs in early devices that don't seem Apple-like because modern Apple hasn't operated that way. Early Apple, very much operated that way.
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Disagree. PCs came out of the box with compelling use cases. They were already in wide spread use in business settings when Apple debuted the GUI.

This is not the case with AR/VR.
 
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wigby said:
The examples you site are based on iPhone's success years after it became a success. iPhone wasn't a big hit in the first year. It only became big seller after they dropped the price and added an App Store. They won't sell more than 1 million of these in year 1. But by year 4, they will have outsold every other headset maker. Apple is playing the long game again just like they did with iPhone.
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The market for smartphones was ridiculously tiny when the iPhone launched. They were a luxury product.

The iPhone outsold Apple's own internal expectations of 1% market share first year due to the massive upgrading of both software and hardware as well as insight and intuitive engineering learned from iMac and iPod.
 
Surf Monkey said:
Disagree. PCs came out of the box with compelling use cases. They were already in wide spread use in business settings when Apple debuted the GUI.

This is not the case with AR/VR.
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People definitely did not see compelling usecases for PCs in the home though. Not for a long time.

AR/VR has enterprise uses already, but the more general purpose side of using it for computing isn't really viable yet. The industry needs its GUI-level advancement.
 
Surf Monkey said:
As negative as I am about Apple’s entry into AR/VR, I have to disagree with this sort of dooms day scenario. People claimed that written words would ruin humanity. Then they thought that printed words would ruin society. Then they thought that recorded sound would ruin society. Then they thought that moving pictures would ruin society. Then they thought television would ruin society. Then they thought that AR/VR would ruin society…
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Arguably all of those things DID ruin society.
 
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robbietop said:
The market for smartphones was ridiculously tiny when the iPhone launched. They were a luxury product.

The iPhone outsold Apple's own internal expectations of 1% market share first year due to the massive upgrading of both software and hardware as well as insight and intuitive engineering learned from iMac and iPod.
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The market was not tiny and smartphones were everywhere in some professional settings. I had one, all my colleagues had them. I had a windows mobile something or other... several of them.

iPhone was the first one with an interface dumbed down enough that stupid people could use it. And here we are.
 
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DarthBuzzard said:
People definitely did not see compelling usecases for PCs in the home though. Not for a long time.

AR/VR has enterprise uses already, but the more general purpose side of using it for computing isn't really viable yet. The industry needs its GUI-level advancement.
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They’re not even remotely similar.
 
robbietop said:
The market for smartphones was ridiculously tiny when the iPhone launched. They were a luxury product.
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No, that isn’t true. The BlackBerry was wildly popular and not limited to a high end luxury market. PalmOS devices were doing pretty well at that point too.

robbietop said:
The iPhone outsold Apple's own internal expectations of 1% market share first year due to the massive upgrading of both software and hardware as well as insight and intuitive engineering learned from iMac and iPod.
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Sure. But again, it was a PHONE with a clear use case, a reasonable price point and virtually zero physical and social barriers to adoption. AR/VR does not share those qualities and therefore is incapable of being universally adopted in the way iPhone has been. People had been clamoring for a palmtop-phone device, especially from Apple. No one is clamoring for AR/VR.
 
Surf Monkey said:
Come on now.
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Plowing and harvesting were backbreaking toil, but the peasant enjoyed anywhere from eight weeks to half the year off. The Church, mindful of how to keep a population from rebelling, enforced frequent mandatory holidays. Weddings, wakes and births might mean a week off quaffing ale to celebrate, and when wandering jugglers or sporting events came to town, the peasant expected time off for entertainment. There were labor-free Sundays, and when the plowing and harvesting seasons were over, the peasant got time to rest, too. In fact, economist Juliet Shor found that during periods of particularly high wages, such as 14th-century England, peasants might put in no more than 150 days a year.

As for the modern American worker? After a year on the job, she gets an average of eight vacation days annually.


Are you really having a nicer time than an illiterate peasant?
 
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Surf Monkey said:
They’re not even remotely similar.
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  • PCs and XR are both computing platforms.
  • XR is following a similar growth trajectory to early PCs within the same time period.
  • Both are foundational technologies where the tech has to be mostly invented from scratch.
  • Many breakthrough advances needed to push the early tech into more refined models.
  • Both have substantial skepticism early on and uninterest from the masses early on.
Definitely a lot of similarity. Certainly more similarities than smartphones can attest to.
 
citysnaps said:
I wouldn't latch too strongly on the rumored $3K price. That's just a speculative number tossed out by a tech journalist with an imperfect track record.

Many people love to cling to that number as it's an easy entry point into giving Apple a good bash and a reason to call it a flop. Even though it's based on essentially nothing.
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On the other hand, Apple charges $700 for a set of 4 casters and $1000 for a monitor desktop stand.

$3k might actually be a bargain in Timmy's RFD. Maybe $1000 for the goggles, $2000 for the proprietary battery, $3000 for the cable between the battery and headset. And $4000/month from Apple Services to allow you to connect it to an AppleID and actually use the thing.
 
NY Guitarist said:
Does it come with a snorkel?

On a serious note how does a person who needs corrective lenses use this? Is there a diopter?
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This is a great question I have been wondering about also. I know some existing headsets just fit over glasses. Adding extra lenses and focusing stuff into a headset would $$$$$$$$$$$$ the price.
 
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Surf Monkey said:
As negative as I am about Apple’s entry into AR/VR, I have to disagree with this sort of dooms day scenario. People claimed that written words would ruin humanity. Then they thought that printed words would ruin society. Then they thought that recorded sound would ruin society. Then they thought that moving pictures would ruin society. Then they thought television would ruin society. Then they thought that AR/VR would ruin society…
Click to expand...
Then they thought social media would ruin society. They were correct.
 
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