Meta Cancels High-End Mixed Reality Headset After Apple Vision Pro Struggles

[LogicalApex]

For the life of me, I don't understand why a company with the market cap the size of Apple is focusing so much on something that is so clearly going to have such little appeal.

To me, the holy grail of AR is sizing up tactic, holographic plasma displays that we saw from Japanese researchers in 2015: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/a-floating-holographic-plasma-display-that-you-can-touch/

If Apple could create a solution where they could project tactile, holographic images into our every day living environment without having to wear bulky visors??? What an amazing, world-changing development that would be!

I mean that’s what any company has to do. There was a time when the iPhone didn’t exist and focusing on phones as a computer company seemed absurdly dumb. The same is true for the App Store.

Focusing and building a market where one doesn’t exist is important.

They won’t always be right. But they have the money to be fantastically successful when they are.

 

[Regret]

I get Vision sales waning was probably the final nail in the coffin, but Meta more than anyone should’ve known that this wouldn’t work. The Quest Pro was also a massive failure and it came out long before AVP with a much lower price.

 

[JPack]

Vision Pro is basically a $3,500 headset that socially isolates the wearer with no killer apps. To top it off, it has a 2 hour battery life and lacks cellular.

This is of the few times Apple falls into the bleeding edge tech trap. Apple usually waits and observes to see how well the market accepts new tech. This time the roles are reversed. I wouldn't be surprised if Tim Cook accelerated this just to have a big achievement before retiring.

 

[Pakaku]

For the life of me, I don't understand why a company with the market cap the size of Apple is focusing so much on something that is so clearly going to have such little appeal.

They want to be the gold standard that other companies copy when they make a headset, like this one before it was apparently cancelled

 

[atomic.flip]

more accurate headline: Meta couldn't out engineer Apple

Even more accurate: Meta agrees Apple wasted money on a frivolous product. LOL

 

[springsup]

Enthusiasm about the Vision Pro started dying down just a month after it launched, and fewer customers visited Apple retail stores for demonstrations. Apple cut Vision Pro shipments in April, and the company is unlikely to sell even 500,000 of the headsets in 2024.

I’d completely forgotten the Vision Pro even existed until this article, and Apple software and devices are my job.

 

[atomic.flip]

Vision Pro is basically a $3,500 headset that socially isolates the wearer with no killer apps. To top it off, it has a 2 hour battery life and lacks cellular.

This is of the few times Apple falls into the bleeding edge tech trap. Apple usually waits and observes to see how well the market accepts new tech. This time the roles are reversed. I wouldn't be surprised if Tim Cook accelerated this just to have a big achievement before retiring.

They did the same with the Newton. It’s not the first time. But in general it’s not typical for Apple to do this.

 

[jz0309]

Vision Pro is basically a $3,500 headset that socially isolates the wearer

And a Quest 3 or any other headset would not fall into that "category"?

 

[atomic.flip]

And a Quest 3 or any other headset would not fall into that "category"?

I don’t think anyone is saying that. Idk. I have several VR/AR headsets and until this stuff can be so low profile that is sits on your face like a regular pair of glasses it’s not going to take off.

The only way that might change is if we have another pandemic where people are extremely restricted on travel and isolated in their homes. Then the desire to create a virtual environment may be so significant that people are willing to wear the headgear.

Another possibility is extreme weather preventing travel or outdoor activities.

 

[jz0309]

I don’t think anyone is saying that. Idk. I have several VR/AR headsets and until this stuff can be so low profile that is sits on your face like a regular pair of glasses it’s not going to take off.

The only way that might change is if we have another pandemic where people are extremely restricted on travel and isolated in their homes. Then the desire to create a virtual environment may be so significant that people are willing to wear the headgear.

Another possibility is extreme weather preventing travel or outdoor activities.

I think I mostly agree, just that the comment I quoted is nothing unique to the VPro

 

[locovaca]

How many MBA's does it take to realize that nobody wants to pay $3500 to strap a brick to their face

I totally read MBA as “MacBook Air,” took me a minute to figure out why they’d need more than one!

 

[votdfak]

And a Quest 3 or any other headset would not fall into that "category"?

$500 for Q3 is bargain. You can share device easy, bunch of VR games, it's great for watching movies (just watched Longlegs in "theatre", it's creepy af). I cannot comment on productivity because my work laptop is locked down.

 

[Odan]

I almost exclusively use Apple products, I really wanted to buy the Vision Pro, but the only thing I'd be doing is watching movies.... I ended up getting the Quest 3 because it supports steam VR so for 1/7th the price in my case twice two use cases. Apple is missing some obvious integrations like Steam and (unrelated I know) the ability to use an iPad as a Mac mini screen when you travel using a usb-c cable.

BTW I hate suckerberg and his invasive meta stuff, I do not even have an fb or instagram. I really would pay like 2k for a Vision device that works with steam vr, too bad Apple has its own idea of gaming instead of letting people play what they really like.

 

[contacos]

“As a result, Apple has stopped work on a second-generation high-cost Vision Pro and is instead focusing on creating a lower-cost model with fewer features and a price closer to high-end iPhones.”

Apple started from the wrong end. Did they forget that the original iPhone was too expensive for people to buy too, so they had to lower the prices to get the interest going and grow the market. The same with Vision products, they should have released a pop version first at around 500-700$ and then thought about going Pro with its pricing. I mean for 3.5K I can turn my entire wall into a screen and share this experience with my friends, instead of sitting there in my diving mask all alone and looking all weird.

I have been saying this as well. They should have started "cheap" to introduce VR to people that have never experienced VR before (I am sure they would have already been amazed) and a more expensive better one down the line when people have already been hooked.

Instead they out priced themselves and now it would be like "I don't want your cheap version! That ain't cool!) if they release a cheaper version. The buzz is already gone

 

[acgmph]

I still enjoy my AVP every day no matter what others’ opinions are. The features that are coming with visionOS 2 are awesome.

On the business side, AVP brought in more than $2B in sales (rough estimate). With a very high margin. Tell me of another AR/VR business that brings in this much cash from hardware sales. Meta is at $1B with… wait for it… $16B in LOSSES for the year.

Sure. They stopped working on it because nobody’s buying AVP OR they stopped working on it to lower their operating loss in the hardware division.

 

[Macalway]

Failure is contagious.

 

[DrJR]

I had Oculus very early on and realized this would be an abject failure. There are some high end use cases for it, sure, but you aren't getting every average person strapped with one any time soon. I wanted them to do nice AR glasses. I feel the vision of AR had a lot more promise - like when I'm on top of a mountain I want to look about and see labelled towns and such..... or looking at a huge machine and want to see where the grease zerks are for maintenance and have it walk an employee through such things. I was wanting that back almost 10 years ago.

 

[wigby]

A top-notch cabbage waxer is still a cabbage waxer, and will always be limited by the amount of people that have any interest whatsoever in a cabbage waxer.

And there was also a time when most people didn't care about nor could afford smartphones. What's your point? It's Apple's job to make the masses want to buy AVP. It took them years to ramp up the demand for iPhone, AirPods and most of their high end computers. AVP has been available to the masses for only 6 months so far.

 

[S.B.G]

has struggled with consumer appeal

For me, there was never an appeal for this type of device, regardless of manufacturer. If I have to wear something on my face in order to use it, I'm not interested. I wear eyeglasses and I don't even like that.

It's not too different from the 3D TV fad several years ago. If I have to wear something in order for the trick to work, I'm not interested.

Then, when the Apple Vision was announced at what, something like $3K, that further solidified my lack of interest in the device.

I'm sure the technology behind it is neat, and cool, but I just have no interest in wearing something on my face.

 

[ericlp]

The quest 4, needs eye tracking and a faster chip... Then just maybe, I will think about upgrading my quest two... Zuck missed the mark when he didn't include OLED panels and eye tracking on the three.

 

[Corefile]

VR with bulky goggles is just not practical for regular day to day life. The technology has to be miniaturized to where it's indistinguishable from a pair of sunglasses.

 

[Corefile]

This is of the few times Apple falls into the bleeding edge tech trap. Apple usually waits and observes to see how well the market accepts new tech. This time the roles are reversed. I wouldn't be surprised if Tim Cook accelerated this just to have a big achievement before retiring.

Tim Apple would have been smarter saying it's a hobby for Apple until they know where the technology is going. It gives plausible deniability that could turn into another Apple TV instead of becoming Tim's Apple Cube moment.

 

[StuBeck]

“As a result, Apple has stopped work on a second-generation high-cost Vision Pro and is instead focusing on creating a lower-cost model with fewer features and a price closer to high-end iPhones.”

Apple started from the wrong end. Did they forget that the original iPhone was too expensive for people to buy too, so they had to lower the prices to get the interest going and grow the market. The same with Vision products, they should have released a pop version first at around 500-700$ and then thought about going Pro with its pricing. I mean for 3.5K I can turn my entire wall into a screen and share this experience with my friends, instead of sitting there in my diving mask all alone and looking all weird.

Everyone forgets this. People instead want to laugh at Balmer for saying a $600 phone wasn't going to work...it didn't! They immediately dropped the price by 33%, and its successor was $400 less expensive than the original.

Meta was hoping that Apple's fans would push VR/AR/Whatever Apple wants to call it R to the masses in a way they haven't just by being Apple. It didn't work, because the core problems that exist with other headsets exist with this one. Thats why Meta is doing this, because they needed to prepare for a possible market opportunity, and then when it became clear it didn't exist, they had to pivot.

 

[Timo_Existencia]

I love my AVP, still.

1) Not every product has to be a mass market product.
2) I am long-term bullish on Spatial Computing, and my AVP is used primarily as a productive device
3) We early adopters are paving the way for your "eyeglass size" devices
4) Meta sells the Quest for a loss; because the device isn't the product, you are.

 

[blazerunner]

The Apple Vision is struggling? Really? Who would have thought that ridiculously stupid looking headset would ever have trouble selling? MacRumors led me to believe this was going to be the next big thing!!!