Apple's Vision Pro Developer Labs Not Drawing Many Attendees

[Hastings101]

i don't think this will be a flop, but it may not be a huge success with the first generation. Apple's thing has always been taking something already done and doing a much better job than anyone else at it... and I feel like they haven't quite hit that with this first release. This device is probably the best VR headset in existence, but it's not clearly better in every way than a Quest 2 for the average person for example despite the 10x price tag. It's not like how the Macintosh/iPod/iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch brought big advances to their product categories to the point it basically reinvented them.

I think they rushed it honestly, and as long as we have been hearing these headset rumors I don't know why they felt the need to rush it out. Very unusual for Apple. But who knows, maybe it will be a massive seller and take over the world of VR and change everything.

 

[Realityck]

Niche Market + Niche Product = Niche Interest.

In addition, I think Apple should cover the travel expenses. It's a multi-trillion-dollar company.

If word got out that Apple needed to pay their expenses to get a product off the ground there would be no end of jokes. It has to be far enough along in establishing a marketplace so it attracts developers, at this point what do we think the initial sales will be like at $3500 for Vision Pro, say maybe 20,000 units? It reminds one of the 8K marketplace, no media, no sales. So a better thing would be for Apple to partner with a limited number of more experienced developers for accelerating development of what considered the most important VisionOS apps to start out with.

 

[Rychiar]

I don't see a reason for VR/AR headsets besides Games and Porn.

Is that not enough? 😂

 

[abetancort]

Plus:

No use-case.
Bad for eyes.
Big and uncomfortable.
Poor Battery Life.

As how the device is presented now. It is useless.

The design team was not behind the release of this product as it is not ready for primetime! Apple marketing pushed out some fake news that all
VPs were suddenly behind the product and never saw this "amazing" AR/VR experience.

From what was presented it was nothing special and the news following some aspects were indeed not finished does not do this product good.

Buy Android and move to an Android forum.

 

[arkitect]

I don't see a reason for VR/AR headsets besides Games and Porn.

Is that not enough? 😂

Well, throw in seamless Pizza delivery and *boom*!

 

[jz0309]

It also happens that July and August are popular vacation months and people might not have planned to visit one of those centers…
And it also happens that because of the above, vacation, people need to create more click and bait news to keep the income flow, but Gurman does not fall into that category (/s)

 

[timber]

I don't see a reason for VR/AR headsets besides Games and Porn.

Real cinema experience at home also sounds pretty good.

And if it can walk can talk it isn't that expensive as weird as it may sound (for single users, it quickly adds up)

From an European perspective having to travel to Munich is also not great and mirrors the US problem.

Still, I hope they keep working and succeed because at its best Vision Pro looked great during the keynote.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I don't see a reason for VR/AR headsets besides Games and Porn.

There's many applications of mixed reality headsets because just those two

Engineers use HMDs for making CAD models, as they can shape the model in a 3D environment and simulate any errors in real time

The US military uses VR for training pilots

Museums use headsets for exhibit tours. The Louvre in Paris is especially notable for this

There's even recently been 3D artists who use VR to create their works.

So there's reasons for the headsets. The problem ultimately is the price of the device, and Apple being Apple. The VR industry is known for being very open, and here comes Apple with a $3500 headset that closed as hell, limited to an app store that only allows apps Apple approves. Meta openly supports sideloading, to the point they implemented a system called App Lab where developers can launch their apps and games on the Quest before they get store approval, and endorsing the third party sideloading app store SideQuest.

Limiting the Vision Pro to just the Apple App Store is honestly a massive mistake and turning VR developers away.

 

[iToph]

I don't see a reason for VR/AR headsets besides Games and Porn.

That suits perfectly my daily needs.

 

[Rogifan]

Not surprising. Apple execs still haven’t provided a compelling reason for why this product exists and why people should want it. It seems like the perfect example of cool tech for the sake of it.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

If true, the reason could simply be that the simulator is good enough that attending an in-person lab doesn’t seem necessary.

 

[tarkeybear]

My first use is "inifinte screens" that I can take with me while traveling, or using a puny Mac with a Mega-screen provided by a linked Vision headset. After that, I would assume consumptive stuff (movies, reading, meditating). If I was an engineer or sculptor, I would love to see an AR application where I could sculpt/shape and assemble objects. Heck, as a woodworker hobbyist, if you could give me an AR space to place wooden subcomponents to test for aesthetics and operability (door swing, drawer clearance etc) as a prototyping environment, prior to cutting, I would be happy to pay for that app.

 

[pianophile]

This is the v1.0 edition of Vision Pro. Once the product matures, and the price comes down, I will consider it as an iPad replacement. Someday, a desktop replacement.

 

[Rogifan]

Plus:

No use-case.
Bad for eyes.
Big and uncomfortable.
Poor Battery Life.

As how the device is presented now. It is useless.

The design team was not behind the release of this product as it is not ready for primetime! Apple marketing pushed out some fake news that all
VPs were suddenly behind the product and never saw this "amazing" AR/VR experience.

From what was presented it was nothing special and the news following some aspects were indeed not finished does not do this product good.

Sadly Apple-centric techies like John Gruber, Jason Snell, ATP guys etc. are all positive about this product and all think Apple needed to put something out there. But even so they’re stretching to come up with compelling use cases, especially for something that costs $3500. Nobody is going to be wearing this on an airplane, especially when battery life is only a couple hours.

 

[rboerdijk]

$3500 and very little focus on VR gaming which is what most people would want this for.

Yeah no... come back to me when it's 350$

 

[a m u n]

Not surprising. Apple execs still haven’t provided a compelling reason for why this product exists and why people should want it. It seems like the perfect example of cool tech for the sake of it.

How can you be so sure? Have you tried Apple Vision Pro? If not, then your opinion holds no meaning.

Interestingly, the same people who predicted the failure of iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods are now saying the same about Vision Pro.

 

[acslater017]

Very disappointed with the small-minded responses on this thread - they seem more like standard YouTube trolls than people who have followed Apple and the tech industry.

Vision has no use case? It displays *anything anywhere* without needing a PC/console and without completely disconnecting you from others, has spatial audio without covering your ears, and the interface doesn’t require hardware controllers. Even just using windowed apps in an immersive environment looks amazing. People at WWDC were moved to tears by the 3D camera (“Dystopia!” Or how about you detach the straps and film holding it in your hands? 🤷🏻‍♂️). The potential for integration with AppleTV+, Apple Films, Apple Music, NextVR (sports), and Disney is huge.

Is this not the sci-fi holy grail of personal computing people have been imagining for decades (albeit with some first-gen limitations)? Apple fans, have we not seen Apple tackle things like battery life, size, price, nascent app ecosystems, and social skepticism a dozen times in the past 25 years?

iMac: looks fruity and unprofessional! Doesn’t even have a floppy drive!
iPod: expensive, over-engineered museum piece
Mac OS X: all eye candy, missing features
iTunes: nobody will buy digital music! People have CDs & Napster
iPhone: 3x as expensive as a Blackberry, no keyboard, 3G, or third party apps
iPad: nobody wants a giant iPhone with a silly feminine hygiene name
MacBook Air: form over function, nobody wants a computer missing a CD drive
Apple Watch: clearly just for nerds and tech fashionistas; FitBit beat them to the punch!
AirPods: OMG it looks like you have cotton swabs in your ears.

Time after time, the short-sighted people make their digs. And 2-4 years later everyone and their mom wants one, and they’ve moved on to hating the next thing.

Btw it doesn’t need to sell 200 million units like the iPhone to be successful. How many Studio and XDR displays, or Mac Pros, or Mac Studios does Apple sell at $2K-$6K? Hell, even the most successful Macs sell something like 1/50th the unit sales as iPhone.

 

[now i see it]

Likely because most are taking a Wait & See to this new device

 

[klasma]

Well, US developers only have one city option. No wonder the numbers are low.

If there actually was a high developer interest, one would expect the numbers to be high for that single location, because it’s the only one available in the US.

 

[aknabi]

I don't see a reason for VR/AR headsets besides Games and Porn.

Yeah, ok... the true drivers of technology

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I have a bad feeling about Vision. I hope it doesn’t flop but I don’t see it being as popular as other Apple devices.

Dang, you don’t think it’ll be as popular as the Home Pod?

People seem to forget that Apple hasn’t had a successful new product in a long, long time.

The iPhone is 16 years old. Arguably the iPad and Apple Watch were successful products after that, but even the Apple Watch is 8 years old (and, worth remembering, largely developed under Steve Jobs as the iPod Touch Nano - none of Apple’s successes actually stem from Tim Cook as CEO.)

 

[stocklen]

But, as everyone is saying....

Developers aren't charity cases - they develop software that they NEED to be purchased/used/downloaded by as many people as possible.

Apple are putting in a rather lacklustre effort (not paying travel expenses etc) in attracting developers that they sorely need for this product to be a success.

Why would developers be interested in a platform that will only launch in one country at a price point that is simply unachievable by a significant proportion of potential customers.

It's priced at a level that 'pros' would spend on souped up laptops and desktops for pro level workflows. Nobody else spends that kind of money.

Everyone else also understands that this is a pro device and will surely spawn (if its successful enough) a more affordable entry level model - the incentive to buy this product is tiny in comparison to the number of iPad/iPhone customers that Apple currently enjoys.

It looks like a fun device... and it's a novelty and a curiosity. I felt the same about the Oculus Quest 2 but at £300 that was something I could justify buying to try it out and it wasnt half bad.
Like it or not, $3,500 puts the device out of the reach of anything like significant numbers of potential customers and this will not sell in large numbers.
THIS is why developers aren't interested (yet).

 

[arkitect]

How can you be so sure? Have you tried Apple Vision Pro? If not, then your opinion holds no meaning.

Interestingly, the same people who predicted the failure of iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods are now saying the same about Vision Pro.

Not one of those three things you mentioned cost $3,500 to start with.

Not one of them.

Then, a mobile phone, we've all had one and knew what the deal is;
Earphones/headphones, same thing;
A watch — a smart watch, anyone could see there is potential…

This Apple Vision Pro is a whole different ball game.

Few people are going to splash out $x,000s to try something out and walk away from if they find no use for it.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

It will have no impact on the VR space if it fails.

No I think the OP was right; if Apple can't crack the market, I don't think investors will be willing to give money out to anyone else to try, either.

 

[Blue Nova]

I have a bad feeling about Vision. I hope it doesn’t flop but I don’t see it being as popular as other Apple devices.

Maybe flop for the consumers, but I’m sure it will be useful for something scientific, after all it has been thought of and well developed, just like benefits from Apollo mission, it yielded a giant Leaps in Technology. And later the consumer will be ready to adapt.