Maybe the Pixel watch will get your spirits flamed again.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Could Apple's Next Product Announcement Finally Be an AR/VR Headset?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The crowd willing to spend $1500-$2000 on a new phone might.
Personally, looking forward to Apple finally giving the lower-end crowd some needed upgrades (M2 Mac Mini, 27" iMac). VR will generate buzz, update macs will generate more revenue.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Actually it has the potential to be that.
Fully control what eyes see and ears hear and the next iPhone(s) could be virtualized IN there... along with the next iPad and any Mac you want to use at any time. Secretly wish you could expand an iPhone screen to a much bigger screen? A virtual one could be sized up to any size screen... billboard if you like. On the road with a laptop but wish you could temporarily tap into the power of a Studio Ultra or Loaded Mac Pro? It can be accessible IN there. Jammed into a too-tight airplane seat and wish you could work on your desktop Mac with 2- no 3- no 10 screens? Virtually use the tray table as your keyboard and the rest of the desktop, space (and crowd free setting) is all IN there. Depressed to be jammed into a window-less cubicle? IN there, you can have the most incredible corner office in which to do your work... or do it at a virtual beach... or on the Moon, etc.
These googles/glasses/whatever could be ALL future iPhones, iPads, Watches and Macs. Apple manufacturing costs can plunge to the cost to develop one- virtually- and then roll that out to all who want one at very high margin, $0 cost of manufacturing. No more damaged iDevices. No more environmental impacts of any device that you can use IN there. Subscription/Rental ("computing services") models instead of mostly outright purchases... use whatever tech you need whenever you need it.
And that's just ONE example of what you can have if you can control what eyes see and what ears hear.
Also jammed in tight quarters on a long airplane or train ride and want to watch the movie on a screen bigger than your phone, tablet or laptop? Watch it on your own IMAX screen in full surround. Wish you could watch the big game in person instead of on that crappy little screen in the back of the seat in front of you? VR could put you courtside and/or front row at any of the biggest shows without spending many hundreds to many thousands to actually be there.
And on and on.
Can Apple deliver on that scale? I don't know. But I suspect after this very lengthy period of dev time, it has to be more than standing in a spot splitting blocks flying at us in 3D. Full control of vision and sound would deliver enormous opportunity.
This year, I paid more than $8K for a Mac + Monitor that is pretty much locked to a single location in the world. In VR, that Mac (or a network of 20 or 50 of them) could be available to me anywhere at any time. Would that be worth the rumored $3K to anyone? It would to me.
Last edited:
A VR headset is very much a personal device meant to be used at home. It isn't clear what Apple has planned for VR when it comes to entertainment - Apple Arcade isn't compelling enough for gamers to suddenly switch from PC/consoles and Apple TV are barely catching steam despite the great content on there. Maybe it'll incentivize other services Disney/Netflix/etc. to produce more VR content and give it the push it couldn't get for a decade. It's very hard to picture Apple approaching the metaverse the way Zuckerberg is, their philosophies are entirely different. Yet they possess every tool it needs and more. Camera tech, state of the art sensors, even the recent introduction of spatial audio is a precursor.
Apple's direction with AR is kind of predictable since it has existed on our phones for years, but I can't imagine a virtual world on their terms or if they even want to go that route.
Apple hasn't wowed in years, those days are over.
So are the days with concise intuitive software that works!
Yes just like how the original iPhone was a flop
Or the original iPad was a flop
Or the original Apple Watch was a flop
Or the original AirPods were a flop
I will. I absolutely love VR and mixed reality even the enterprise headsets. Anything that moves the tech forward I'm all for. The Quest Pro's amazing hardware for what it is even though I will never buy it.
It still cracks me up when there are people that are waiting for the next iPhone when the simple truth is the iPhone is once in a lifetime thing. That is like waiting for Internet 2, or the next Led Zeppelin, it simply will never happen again.
Even when the iPhone came out, people had hundreds of complaints about it. When the first iPad came out people said all it was was a giant-iPod touch. The Apple Watch when came out, everyone was kind of meh about it, and the same with the Airpods. All three of these products could make a fortune 500 company by themselves, and dozens of companies rip them off all the time.
I personally think the greatest thing that Apple has done since iPhone, that will have huge implications similar to iPhone is Apple Silicon. Specifically in their computers. It is a great innovation that potentially will kill off companies like AMD and Intel unless they learn to adapt.
I’ll do with this VR/AR thing what I did with the Apple Watch, wait 5 generations before buying one.
And miss out on 5 years of something cool which you won’t get back that time. I had original iPhone, iPad, watch… upgrade every once in a while. Damn what else you going to do with your money?
And miss out on 5 years of something cool which you won’t get back that time. I had original iPhone, iPad, watch… upgrade every once in a while. Damn what else you going to do with your money?
So far I can say that even the smartphone did not "change my life". I still do most internet research on a big screen at home and I never watch YouTube videos on a smartphone. Smartphones are just a useful gimmick and VR glasses will also be a gimmick, but much less useful.
I find it very intrusive if one device want to cover my whole view. Right now there are three screens in my view, but also a lot of other stuff. VR glasses would lock me into that virtual world. I could not even eat at the same time.
Usually when I visit a forum like this, I chat on a second screen and watch a video on a third screen. Could I still access this forum while I use VR?
I find it very intrusive if one device want to cover my whole view. Right now there are three screens in my view, but also a lot of other stuff. VR glasses would lock me into that virtual world. I could not even eat at the same time.
Usually when I visit a forum like this, I chat on a second screen and watch a video on a third screen. Could I still access this forum while I use VR?
Yeah, unfortunately the days of "One More Thing…" died with Jobs. There is no Pirate flag hoisted over the Apple helmed by Cook.
Yes, for me it was always very frustrating when I bought the hottest new thing when it came out and a few years later it was the oldest of all. For example I spent a lot of money on the Canon Eos 1D X, which was a camera that brought together the 1D and the 1Ds lines in a single body. It was better than anything before. Today it still is nice and I will continue using it even after nine years, but it got overtaken by so many cameras in the mean time. Now mirrorless cameras arrived and I decided to wait this time. The Eos R3 is really sexy, but it is the first generation high end model of that line. Soon we will see an R1 and in three years from now a R3 Mark II and so on. All the money you waste on the latest stuff is money you will never recover unless you are a professional who makes money of that stuff, which I am not. It hurts when I think back to the 109 Euros I spent for CF cards with a giant 1GB size in 2005. I bought four of them back then. All that stuff that looked like the future once looks like a waste looking backwards.
Imagine you never buy the latest stuff, but always five year old stuff. Then you will also own all of that stuff, just five years later. At the same time you will save tons of money that you can use for travelling instead.
Everybody makes sweeping statements that glom AR and VR together - they're completely different things! While I completely agree that the world is not ready for VR - at least not on the scale Zuckerberg is hoping for - the world is quite ready for the many benefits AR will provide.
There is no question that AR has an infinite number of useful functions in real life. The trick will be to provide it in a package people will want to wear (or at least not mind wearing) all day. And it has to marketed properly to increase desirability and demand. And, unlike Zuckerberg (image of his face plastered with sunscreen still fresh in my mind), Apple is a master at making the most mundane products desirable and cool.
To be honest, I'm not sure why Apple would want to release a VR headset. The potential market (gamers willing to pay $1k+?) is way too small to make it worth it for a company the size of Apple. Perhaps another poster is right and this might just be intended for developers to allow them to better write apps for Apple's real target: AR glasses. Those will sell in the price range of iPhones and will have a similar potential market size as the iPhone.
Please, please don’t let facebook steal credit for the metaverse. Read Neil Stephenson’s Snow Crash. That’s the metaverse. That’s what facebook is trying to essentially stake claim to.
That metaverse was created by hackers and scientists just like the real internet, and facebook has done a lot of hard work toward ruining that. Don’t let them ruin the next layer right off the bat.
Of course Apple is not exactly our friend doing it for the good of humanity either.
That metaverse was created by hackers and scientists just like the real internet, and facebook has done a lot of hard work toward ruining that. Don’t let them ruin the next layer right off the bat.
Of course Apple is not exactly our friend doing it for the good of humanity either.
The problem is that Meta already bought a lot of VR companies and a lot of VR patents. It will be hard for others to compete with that without all those patents.
I wouldn’t mind it if you were right, but if the cost of a unit is near what experts are speculating it will be even if a lot of people want to buy it not many can afford to. And I have yet to see someone give me an example where goggles are a huge advantage for an application use that most people encounter frequently. Someone else said that goggles are a solution in search of a problem that they are good for, and so far I agree with that description. Maybe Apple will have something truly unique and useful to show everyone but it needs to be unique, useful and affordable, and I’m not convinced that this is something that anyone can achieve now.
Yes, and they need to. The Meta Pro has set a reasonably high bar so to truly disrupt this industry they will need to introduce something spectacular, and I believe that they will. This will not be as easy to do as it was with MP3 players for instance or even cell phones. The status quo is very good already.
The ease and quality of working on 5 monitors alone is worth the price of admission. I have had the Quest Pro since launch day and it has already become a regular part of my work day.
This is next and Apple cannot afford to cede their spot at the table, and of course, they won't. The sooner the better for me. We are going to equip our team at announcement, provided that the rumors are in the ballpark.
The ease and quality of working on 5 monitors alone is worth the price of admission. I have had the Quest Pro since launch day and it has already become a regular part of my work day.
This is next and Apple cannot afford to cede their spot at the table, and of course, they won't. The sooner the better for me. We are going to equip our team at announcement, provided that the rumors are in the ballpark.
Not if MetaMan and Professor Chaos have anything to say about it....brrzzzzz.....beeeyowwwww
Last edited:
I don’t question this AR headset’s future potential. Apple products tend to always break thru & find an audience. They have a knack for getting to the market later than their competitors, but they tend to do it right and make people feel they NEED this new device in their life. I’ve been an Apple fanboy since before it was cool. Having said that, I just don’t know if AR is going to be mainstream anytime soon. Perhaps someday, but I just don’t see it now. Apple may prove me wrong with this AR headset. I don’t doubt Apple. I am just skeptical of the appeal of an AR headset beyond a really really expensive addition to people’s home gaming systems.
Maybe that’s what the Goggles really are: the entertainment feature for a fully self driving car that they will drive onto the stage. A $3000+ add on for a vehicle, amortized over 5-7 years doesn’t add that much to a monthly payment.
This is definitely a tongue-in-cheek statement on my part.