I see no one asking the most basic question which is: how is Apple going to properly demo something that really needs to be experienced in person? Sure they’ll have a bunch of snazzy videos and pictures. But what does 4K per eye actually look like in real life? I personally don’t want to go to an Apple Store and slap something on my face that hundreds of others wore on their oily foreheads before me.
I actually speculated on this group demo "problem" in another thread. My own best idea for Apple to be able to demonstrate immersive VR
to a group would be to rent out what are called Omnimax theaters across the country. These are domed screens (related but much different than IMAX) that fill the entire range of vision with imagery. If you don't know omnimax, think planetarium dome presentation.
While it wouldn't be exactly the same as having goggles on the viewers head, I'm not imagining another way to group demo this and somewhat approximate a goggles on experience. How do you demo an "all new" 3-dimentional UI on a 2-dimensional screen to a group? How do you help a group fully grasp that their eyes will not simply be fed imagery from front & center but from all around them (even in the periphery)?
One on one? Sure, just put the goggles on someone's head and have some kind of canned demonstration running. But the "big reveal" show at WWDC only offers- best I know- a big 2D screen. I don't see an obvious way to illustrate goggles immersion on a 2D screen. I don't envision a set of goggles hidden under everyones seat to be pulled out and put on when Apple is ready to demonstrate them. Perhaps a first-ever "intermission" where Apple staff pass out goggles to everyone there for a demonstration post intermission? (I don't see that happening but that would seem key to putting goggles in peoples hands only when Apple is ready for them to see them).
So that led me to thinking about "next comparable thing" for a group demo... which SEEMS (to me anyway) to be Omnimax screens... perhaps with some kind of
Fathom "Special broadcast"-like stream on "big reveal" day so that a good number of interested people could see it live or in same day replay. Apple rents all Omnimax theaters and the demo is run on them to as many as those willing to watch it.
Yes, of course, there will be slick TV commercials, etc. that can be run on the HQ big screen. But it seems this product BEGS for a demo that simulates the big differences of it vs. everything else. And to get the group "splash" experience that Apple seems to love- why they do these coordinated product reveals- they (seem to) need a way to show "goggles on"
to a group without actually having goggles on... basically a VR experience of a VR & AR experience.
I've seen no rumor of Omnimax at all. I'm just trying some "think different" imagination about HOW a group might better get a sense of the bigger differences of this product BEFORE one-on-one demos. TO me, it doesn't seem like a product that can really be fully conveyed on a 2D screen- be that the big one in Cupertino or the much smaller ones in our homes, offices or hands. Even the attendees sitting there live would be seeing whatever is to be shown on a 2D screen... until afterwards when some may get their 5 minutes with the actual thing. By then, a thousand stories will be published in the media... BEFORE anyone has actually got to really experience the unique differences of this vs. what they could watch on a 2D screen.
The challenge in how to group demo this vs. all past Apple reveals is substantial. If it is as rumored, this is not like any other product rollout... ever!