You cannot really compare the iPod with this new Apple XR thing.
When the iPod was released I was using Sony's MiniDisc system to listen to music on the go… Juggling slippery little disc cartridges was a pain! But the sound was really good. Tiny tech, gorgeous players…
Before MiniDisc I had several portable CD players… again, juggling slippery discs, scratches, jumps and jitters… but the sound was good enough to put up with those inconveniences.
Before the portable CD players I used variants of Sony's Walkman… pretty much every year since the first one was released I'd buy a new portable cassette player… The sound was… OK (But for the time it was stellar!) and it gave me the soundtrack to my life as a teenager young adult.
When iPod came along I grabbed the first one I could lay my hands on. Why? Because in one fell swoop the iPod solved all the issues the players above had. I recall (probably incorrectly) even Bill Gates back then was impressed.
The iPod was a bloody marvel.
It was the logical maturation of a concept (listening to music to while on the move) and it was fabulous! Price didn't come in to it. I paid and loved it… And kept paying every year for new models until the iPhone…
Ah, the iPhone. See the above… same. All the way from a shared farm party line, through to slimline cordless, massive stand on the table cell phones with monstrous 2 hour long battery lives… down to tiny Nokias et all…
The iPhone solved all the issues and gave me oh so much more. It changed the life of probably every person I know (whether they own an iPhone or an Android).
So…
Now, tell me what exactly am I doing today that these Apple goggles will just make better. At any price.
I mean, I love technology! I love Apple stuff (maybe not quite so much as I did when I was a single 30-something year old with loads of cash to splash) but…
Anyway. I'll wait and see. I am not a doomsayer. But I am also not a gung ho 20 something year old… I've been at these kind of rodeos before.
As I have said a few times here on MacRumours: If anyone can pull this off it will be Apple.
Exactly what this thing will be no one (outside Apple's secret circle) knows but I would love to be astonished. Bowled over. Drooling at the mouth. Peeing my pants. 🙂
I just don't see it right now.
I'm farrrrrrrrr from fanboy myself. Look around at my posts and there is plenty that are critical of Apple. But it's very easy for me to be excited about
this concept. Hopefully, it can deliver on some of the check my imagination is writing about it. If so, GREAT!
This product doesn't have to be essential to be a success. iPod and even iPhone are not essential either. For example, I don't have an iPhone and don't feel like I'm missing a thing. But iPhone is a success even if it doesn't make me pee my pants, etc.
These don't have to be for everyone to be a success. More people have Android than iPhone... far more people have Windows PC vs. Mac.
If something can show our eyes
ANYTHING in a way that makes it look real... and if the companion product that already exists can play our ears anything (in support) to "fool" our hearing into believing we are "there" too, the applications of what these can do for us is far beyond anything we have now.
Perhaps you don't see it right now because there's nothing yet to see? Most of us couldn't see any sense in "a big iPod" called iPad until they were actually rolled out. What was the point of Watch
before Watch was rolled out- we could do almost anything & everything it could do on the phone already with us (and still can)... and great quartz timekeeping was available for as little as a few dollars in the very well established watch market.
Critical thinker, non-fanboy me can imagine countless things these can deliver that nothing else we already have can deliver. I've shared many tangible examples in this and other Goggle threads. How much would some of us pay for an any-size screen MBpro? This might be able to deliver ANY size screen as a virtualized top half of a MBpro, putting Goggles plus the bottom half of MBpro in the laptop bag for a whole new kind of laptop computing experience. EVERY time I have to switch to using a 16" laptop screen, it feels insanely cramped and the experience is much worse vs. the desktop 40" ultra-wide on which I do most of my work. What if these let me virtualize that 40" ultra wide anywhere I want to use a laptop? Is that worth only $1K more than what I paid to park that desktop screen in one physical spot forever? Absolutely! ABSOLUTELY!
How many are thoroughly longing for an iMac bigger? Some want 27". Some want 30". Some want 32". Some want ultra-wide. What if all of those iMac screens and then some are virtualized in these goggles? How much would we spend for our desired iMac "bigger"? If Goggles could deliver what looks like iMac "bigger", it becomes iMac "bigger" ANYWHERE relatively portable and mobile Goggles can go.
How much would some of us pay for NFL ST VR (NBA, MLB, Soccer, Tennis, Hockey, NCAA, etc too)? How much would some of us pay to be able to attend all of the broadway shows if we can't easily get to NYC or can't afford all of the trips there to see all of them?
Back in post 172, I show a very real value concept: courtside tickets for sale when I posted that at $43,350 for ONE game. How much would someone not able to come up with $43,350 to actually sit in that seat, spend to virtually sit there? That would be a far superior experience to watching "for free" on our TV or Computer. If these deliver a view of reality that looks as good as reality, it could look as real as being there as
actually being there.
Once you can sell ONE virtual seat for relative "peanuts", why not sell that same, prime virtual seat to others? How many others would pay peanuts to virtually sit in that same seat? How many pay for NFL ST to only watch NFL games through a 2D "window" now? How many of those would be willing to pay a bit more than they pay for NFL ST to go from watching games through a 2D Window to feeling as close to being right there as actually being there?
Sport owner makes much more money by selling phantom seats they can't jam into physical areans. Apple takes their big cut right off the top. Buyer gets "next best thing" to being there for far less than $43K... something obviously superior-to-far-superior to watching on television.
No interest in sports? How about doing the same with Concerts? How about Live theater? Opera? Ballet? Attend every Cirque show in the world? Visit every place you want to visit but can't actually afford or just can't work into a busy schedule?
That's all relatively simple stuff. There's not a mountain of brand new software to code to deliver that stuff... nor does it have to be way out in the future somewhere. What is that worth to
some of us? Because it will only take "some" to make Goggles a big success... like it's a relatively small number of Mac owners that make Macs a successful business, and even mighty iPhone is not king of the smart phone market in volume.
Bottom line: maybe Goggles is not for you? And that's OK. iPhone is not for me. And that's OK too. One of those is a monster success without me. Maybe Goggles could be a big success without you?
And "just not seeing it right now" is fine too... because right now, there is nothing at all to see. We'll all be able to see something once Apple actually rolls out whatever this is. Goggles could be one big misdirection smokescreen and Apple will roll out the also-rumored car instead. Some kind of Goggles were used to work out the car's UI and the leakers misunderstood. That seems about as plausible as Goggles right now. Or perhaps this is "for another day" delivered: the all-new Mac Pro?