I'd say it's a red flag, signaling those current employees' respective disaffections with their jobs/company.
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Some Apple Employees Seriously Concerned About Mixed-Reality Headset as Announcement Draws Closer
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Could be disgruntled employees, the ones who are mad at the anti-WFH policies being enforced more. Who really knows?
And all of that (right now) would require wearing bulky googles on your face. Who wants to do that? Even if this tech gets to a point where it can happen with normal looking glasses it will still flop. Most people who wear glasses do so because they have to, not because they want to.
A world where everyone is walking around with googles or glasses on their face? Talk about a dystopian hellscape.
Some Apple employees are concerned about the usefulness and price point of the company's upcoming mixed-reality headset, The New York Times reports.
Initial enthusiasm around the device at the company has apparently become skepticism, according to eight current and former Apple employees speaking to The New York Times. The change of tone reportedly marks an unprecedented level of concern about a new Apple product inside the company, in stark contrast to previous product launches that were pursued with single-mindedness and enthusiasm.
The first-generation headset is purportedly seen as a bridge to future products that require technological breakthroughs, but many employees are said to have worries about the device's $3,000 price point, utility, and unproven market. Skeptics have questioned if the device is "a solution in search of a problem," unlike the iPod and iPhone. The headset has apparently not been "driven by the same clarity" as Apple's other products.
Some Apple employees have defected from the project due to doubts about its potential, while others have been fired over lack of progress with some of the device's functionality, including Siri. The discontent is said to extend to members of Apple's leadership, some of whom have questioned the device's prospects.
The headset was apparently presented to many of Apple's top 100 executives via a video at a corporate retreat five years ago made by design chief Jony Ive. The video depicted a man in a London taxi wearing an augmented reality headset calling his wife in San Francisco, sharing the sights of London through the husband's eyes.
The New York Times reaffirmed previous reports that the headset will feature a carbon fiber frame, a hip-mounted battery, outward-facing cameras, two 4K displays, prescription lenses for wearers of glasses, and a "reality dial" to increase or decrease real-time video pass-through from the surrounding environment.
Apple has focused on ensuring that the device excels at videoconferencing and time spent as virtual avatars, calling the headset's main application "copresence." There will also be custom high-resolution TV content from Hollywood filmmakers including Jon Favreau. Despite similarities with Meta's headsets and the "metaverse," Apple is expected to pitch the device as something that differs from existing offerings.
The device will also offer tools for artists, designers, and engineers, enabling drawing and image editing in 3D space. There will also be applications for editing virtual reality video using hand gestures. As a result, it is expected to appeal to businesses and design companies more than ordinary consumers. Some employees have allegedly speculated that Apple could again delay the headset's launch, even though manufacturing is now underway for an unveiling in June.
Article Link: Some Apple Employees Seriously Concerned About Mixed-Reality Headset as Announcement Draws Closer
Mixed reality products will inevitably be launched and tested by brands that can afford to build and experiment with them - it will be a good first test for Apple.
Or it could be employees raising a red flag. We don’t know. Apple is primarily a consumer electronics company. Nothing about this product screams general consumer. It screams niche product for niche audiences. Sunken cost theory could be in play too. If the company has spent years and tons of R&D dollars on this product there might be a feeling they have to release something. But releasing something just for the sake of it is a bad idea.
This. A pair of glasses, not goggles, which are lightweight, unobtrusive, project AR information into my view, track my eyes, detect blink gestures and have bone-conduction audio and haptics. All day battery with a BLE tether to my phone for the grunt work. This is what I want. Almost certainly not what I’m going to get, for many years. But what I want.
Yeah, I can understand that as well. I use Logitech mice with all my Macs, they cost a fraction of the price of Apple's current model, but feel better in my hand.
But getting back the charging port, even if the ergonomics were improved, having the charging port on the bottom just not practical.
No reason to "love" the port on the bottom, unless one is obsessive about aesthetics (Jony), and I doubt most people would care about the aesthetics of a port being on the side of the mouse they the user would never even see during use.
My prediction is that the 27" iMac or AS Mac Pro will come with a redesign Apple mouse, with either no charging port or with the port where it should be.
I’d rather they put these resources into creating my hologram phone.
Put it back on the shelf mates. Keep tinkering in the research lab. The VR market shows this is a niche thing that no one cares about, so you've got to nail it as a breakthrough for it to matter.
So an unannounced product is deemed a failure based on the perceptions of 8 former and current employees? How is this even a story? And why would anyone think that the “killer app” is widely known throughout the company? Wouldn’t you think this is something to be kept away from the competition to know about?
Something as simple as the Dynamic Island wasn’t known about until it was unveiled. I believe they have something big, but it is being kept under serious wraps. I don’t believe the price tag being floated either. A lot of misdirection is going on.
Something as simple as the Dynamic Island wasn’t known about until it was unveiled. I believe they have something big, but it is being kept under serious wraps. I don’t believe the price tag being floated either. A lot of misdirection is going on.
my feeling is that will be a typical Cook product, similar to the AirPods, and to some extend the Apple Watch:
A joke on the first iterations, poor sales and mix review. Probaly even missing the correct target for the product.
But a huge success in a few iterations.
A joke on the first iterations, poor sales and mix review. Probaly even missing the correct target for the product.
But a huge success in a few iterations.
Yeah, I don't think this is going to revolutionize anything, or be a record seller like the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch before it. VR is really just useful in a niche gaming market, and the technology for AR isn't quite where it needs to be yet, and I still fear that AR will just turn our lives into a advertising hellscape straight out of a black mirror episode.
These things seem only good to drive drones in a war. Until AI replace the human entirely.
People called the iPod a niche product that'd fail when it was announced. Probably said it about the watch also but don't remember.
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I’ve got my 🍿🍿 ready and super buttered for when Tim must make a public apology for a terrible released product!
Replace batteries every few hours,
$3000 barely ready and no killer app / use case,
Very uncomfortable design (according to recent MacRumors report from employees working in the product)
APPLE Board you ready to give Tim the boot for a failed product launch? You cannot continue to upgrade a product already in the hands of customers of the hardware needs to be changed! If it’s worse that what Oppo demoed then that boot better swing as hard as Forstall’s
of course its a solution in search of a problem. it’s a dev device.
Some Apple employees are concerned about the usefulness and price point of the company's upcoming mixed-reality headset, The New York Times reports.
Initial enthusiasm around the device at the company has apparently become skepticism, according to eight current and former Apple employees speaking to The New York Times. The change of tone reportedly marks an unprecedented level of concern about a new Apple product inside the company, in stark contrast to previous product launches that were pursued with single-mindedness and enthusiasm.
The first-generation headset is purportedly seen as a bridge to future products that require technological breakthroughs, but many employees are said to have worries about the device's $3,000 price point, utility, and unproven market. Skeptics have questioned if the device is "a solution in search of a problem," unlike the iPod and iPhone. The headset has apparently not been "driven by the same clarity" as Apple's other products.
Some Apple employees have defected from the project due to doubts about its potential, while others have been fired over lack of progress with some of the device's functionality, including Siri. The discontent is said to extend to members of Apple's leadership, some of whom have questioned the device's prospects.
The headset was apparently presented to many of Apple's top 100 executives via a video at a corporate retreat five years ago made by design chief Jony Ive. The video depicted a man in a London taxi wearing an augmented reality headset calling his wife in San Francisco, sharing the sights of London through the husband's eyes.
The New York Times reaffirmed previous reports that the headset will feature a carbon fiber frame, a hip-mounted battery, outward-facing cameras, two 4K displays, prescription lenses for wearers of glasses, and a "reality dial" to increase or decrease real-time video pass-through from the surrounding environment.
Apple has focused on ensuring that the device excels at videoconferencing and time spent as virtual avatars, calling the headset's main application "copresence." There will also be custom high-resolution TV content from Hollywood filmmakers including Jon Favreau. Despite similarities with Meta's headsets and the "metaverse," Apple is expected to pitch the device as something that differs from existing offerings.
The device will also offer tools for artists, designers, and engineers, enabling drawing and image editing in 3D space. There will also be applications for editing virtual reality video using hand gestures. As a result, it is expected to appeal to businesses and design companies more than ordinary consumers. Some employees have allegedly speculated that Apple could again delay the headset's launch, even though manufacturing is now underway for an unveiling in June.
Article Link: Some Apple Employees Seriously Concerned About Mixed-Reality Headset as Announcement Draws Closer
AR is still very new. we had no idea what computers or smartphones could be used for until they existed.
Sounds like these issues have been largely solved. Assume Apple did their homework. https://vrlowdown.com/why-is-vr-blurry/
I mean… you’re right, BUT this is a little different.
like, you could see the potential in those products and they weren’t considered extremely expensive. iPhone, yes— but then it was subsidized with carrier contracts. Apple Watch was decently priced at launch and the iPod wasn’t horrible.
for this to start at $3K and go on your head/face isn’t as convenient as something in your pocket, in your hand or on your wrist.
the logistics and functionality are just way different on this device.
I hope I love it, hope it does well and hope future iterations are even better— but only time will tell.
again this is a dev platform. the apps will come once developers have had time to experiment with this dev device.
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
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If that’s the case then regular consumers shouldn’t be paying $3000 for the headset. They should be paying developers an experimental discounted price.