Look, the real question is if this will be out in time to read Winds of Winter hands-free.
But, really…
There are plenty of early, albeit niche, use-case scenarios that just take a bit of imagination. To be clear, I am not predicting this product will be all of these things, or that specialized products and brands won't become standard for particular applications. I'm just spitballing that certain industries that are waiting on breakthroughs from this kind of technology would pay more attention to Apple's high-quality, high-end entry to the market than to Palmer Lucky and Mark Zuckerberg pandering to their own VC-inflated egos. iPads were the first tablets deemed reliable enough to replace pilots' 40 pounds of charts, manuals, and logbooks; it very much seems plausible that Apple is aiming to push AR/VR beyond consumer googaws and explore how the technology could be of actual, practical benefit.
Examples:
• Piloting large vehicles with inherent visibility/line-of-sight limitations (ie, commercial airliners or cargo ships); a reliable AR/VR headset could drastically simplify and make safer landing/docking/taxiing/navigating the Suez canal.
• Assisting in laproscopic surgeries. Hospitals already pay millions for such technologies, what's a few thousand dollars for the absolute best headset that wasn't primarily designed for gaming?
• Remote operating search and rescue drones, bomb-disposal robots, deep-sea vehicles, &c. We already have first-person drone flying; why not have no-compromise, high-end tech for serious, potentially life-and-death applications?
• Allowing 3D modellers and directors to enter their scenes and wander around looking for the best camera frames to render. Yeah, this is getting back into just-for-spoiled-tech-bros uses, but to be fair, you know Mythic Quest would be mocking this immediately. It's still a market Apple would love to corner.
It's easy to make fun of some goofy Futurama future where regular consumers are bumbling around in trendy, overengineered goggles. It's just as easy to wait and see what clever people come up with.
But, really…
There are plenty of early, albeit niche, use-case scenarios that just take a bit of imagination. To be clear, I am not predicting this product will be all of these things, or that specialized products and brands won't become standard for particular applications. I'm just spitballing that certain industries that are waiting on breakthroughs from this kind of technology would pay more attention to Apple's high-quality, high-end entry to the market than to Palmer Lucky and Mark Zuckerberg pandering to their own VC-inflated egos. iPads were the first tablets deemed reliable enough to replace pilots' 40 pounds of charts, manuals, and logbooks; it very much seems plausible that Apple is aiming to push AR/VR beyond consumer googaws and explore how the technology could be of actual, practical benefit.
Examples:
• Piloting large vehicles with inherent visibility/line-of-sight limitations (ie, commercial airliners or cargo ships); a reliable AR/VR headset could drastically simplify and make safer landing/docking/taxiing/navigating the Suez canal.
• Assisting in laproscopic surgeries. Hospitals already pay millions for such technologies, what's a few thousand dollars for the absolute best headset that wasn't primarily designed for gaming?
• Remote operating search and rescue drones, bomb-disposal robots, deep-sea vehicles, &c. We already have first-person drone flying; why not have no-compromise, high-end tech for serious, potentially life-and-death applications?
• Allowing 3D modellers and directors to enter their scenes and wander around looking for the best camera frames to render. Yeah, this is getting back into just-for-spoiled-tech-bros uses, but to be fair, you know Mythic Quest would be mocking this immediately. It's still a market Apple would love to corner.
It's easy to make fun of some goofy Futurama future where regular consumers are bumbling around in trendy, overengineered goggles. It's just as easy to wait and see what clever people come up with.
