Former Apple Engineering Leader Joins Microsoft to Work on HoloLens and Other Hardware

[szw-mapple fan]

I was not 'bashing' on anything ... just stating someone's basic comment that Microsoft didn't do much for VR/AR was very narrow sighted.

Having users does show, especially BIG financially backed users shows that the interface is good. Remember, verbal or written feedback is free, very much so - as Microsoft received in the first 2 iterations. Paying for a product/service costs money and both Microosft and their clients are in business to make money - yes even major hospitals are as well - at least in N.America.

Apple is very careful to make products fully in the Health space, the Watch is their first and only foray ... and until their AR glases launch I'd say their UI is very very basic and doesn't yet come close to the information, power, nor use cases of what Microsoft is doing and has done for 5yrs now in AR with Hololens. You may not agree and that's perfectly fine but please don't take my simplistic reply out of context as bashing someone.

Cheers

Reread my comment please. I never suggested you were bashing anything. "Basing," not bashing.

As for the interface, people said that about blackberries and windows phone as well. Heck, Microsoft had a 10 year head start in the tablet space when the iPad launched. I wouldn't count them out until they show us what they have.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Reread my comment please. I never suggested you were bashing anything. "Basing," not bashing.

As for the interface, people said that about blackberries and windows phone as well. Heck, Microsoft had a 10 year head start in the tablet space when the iPad launched.

my apologies ... (mac on TV should've read my glasses) sincerely. I was basing of course.

Microsoft WinCE for Tablets, PocketPC (Casio, HP, Toshiba, Compact, HTC, etc), and then PocketPC-PE (Compaq - before/after HP purchased iPaq, Samsung, Acer, HTC early years as an OEM H240 was sweet, etc). Yeah Microsoft had an early lead for N/S America and some of Europe, Pocket-Phone Edition (PE) took heavily on Nokia's S60 2ND Edition amongst users/carriers and partners (Samsung played both sides their INNOV8 featured Samsungs 1st OLED screen ever, SonyEricsson and Motorola before they tried Java based smartphones). Microsoft got very very lazy thereafter.

 

[PostApple2016BrainWash]

Apple letting its talented employees to leave from the company and the product design is not up to the gold standard it upholds.

 

[Alan Wynn]

Having users does show, especially BIG financially backed users shows that the interface is good.

Not really. It simply shows that there is a niche that for whom the product is valuable and functional enough that they will accept whatever UI it has. Windows 95 had users and very few people argued it had a good UI. Until there is a great deal of completion in the category, all we know is that some people are willing to pay for this product.

Remember, verbal or written feedback is free, very much so - as Microsoft received in the first 2 iterations.

Just because Microsoft (or any other company) received feedback, does not mean that they know what do do with it, especially, because most negative feedback from users is not actionable (e.g. “this sucks”, rather than: “the most import menu items should be in the top level menu”).

Paying for a product/service costs money and both Microosft and their clients are in business to make money - yes even major hospitals are as well - at least in N.America.

Again, just because they have some number of paying customers does not mean that they have nailed the interface. It just means that these customers think the product solves a problem for them at a price they are willing to pay.

Most of my use of Hololens has been in demos. It seems like reasonable technology, but it does not feel like they have nailed the UI nor come up with a compelling solution for anything other than niche adoption.

There is a British expression “Sell to the classes, live with the masses. Sell to the masses, live with the classes.” that best explains the issue. A product sold to various niche markets (especially one that is a core component on top of which someone else builds a valuable platform) rarely generates enough money to be highly profitable. One can make a living off of it, but not get rich. How successful one can be with that strategy is really dependent on how many niches there are that can drive sales of the core tech.

I have no idea if Apple or anyone else will be able to crack the UI and compelling use case problems either. I have seen some interesting ideas for AR applications (the shopping list that guides you around the grocery store and highlights the right products), but none yet that convince me that I should wear glasses all the time for the benefit of using them.

 

[Alan Wynn]

Apple letting its talented employees to leave from the company and the product design is not up to the gold standard it upholds.

Apple did not want to ”let[ing] its talented employees [to] leave from the company”, but the 13th Amendment prevents them from keeping them against their will. If you can work on getting that repealed for them, I am sure they would be grateful.