Too Early?

[James Godfrey]

Does anyone else feel like Apple have been a bit too hasty announcing this product… I understand that Apple want developers on board etc… but we could potentially be a whole year away from release and if the Apple Silicon Mac Pro launch is anything to go by (a whole year behind schedule), who’s to say that it doesn’t end up launching until late 2024 or even early 2025.

By which time the competition will have caught up and the amazing Apple Vision might not be so amazing especially at that price tag, it’s going to be interesting to see how this new product line pans out and if it actually end up catching on or whether it will end up like another HomePod or god forbid AirPower…

 

[FreakinEurekan]

No... they NEED the dev community to build up an app base for it before release. Even at 6 months it's tight, though they could have enough apps to show the "possibilities" by then.

And with what went into making this work properly... if you think anyone can catch up in a year, with the quality and at even EQUIVALENT price... not likely. This is not a generic headset that you can just slot another one in to substitute. There are 3 legs to this stool... Manufacturing, Engineering, and Software. Could someone make an equivalent display, without the front "Eyes" display & 3D view that gives as good an image for less money? Sure. But would it have the eye tracking features, the hand tracking features, and the App Store? Well.... 😬

 

[Kierkegaarden]

Competition will not catch up. What you see is the result of 5+ years of r&d with 5000+ patents filed. I am blown away by what they produced and the level of detail achieved.

 

[James Godfrey]

No... they NEED the dev community to build up an app base for it before release. Even at 6 months it's tight, though they could have enough apps to show the "possibilities" by then.

And with what went into making this work properly... if you think anyone can catch up in a year, with the quality and at even EQUIVALENT price... not likely. This is not a generic headset that you can just slot another one in to substitute. There are 3 legs to this stool... Manufacturing, Engineering, and Software. Could someone make an equivalent display, without the front "Eyes" display & 3D view that gives as good an image for less money? Sure. But would it have the eye tracking features, the hand tracking features, and the App Store? Well.... 😬

The one thing that is concerning is whether developers are going to see ROI for their development, in my opinion apple are going to have to be quick in getting this line opened up to more people by making a cheaper option, otherwise, I can see it flopping if in 2 years time only a few % of the apple user base own one, and only a small % of those are actively using it.

The main issues I have are:

Firstly, it’s a niche product which people don’t really need it’s not like an iPhone or a Mac which are more of a required necessity in this day and age.

Secondly, for product which is more of a want than a need, asking for $3500 is a big ask and will likely take years upon years to become a product which the masses are willing to pay for.

Thirdly, how many years can developers sustain and continually update apps with such a small user base before the costs are far outweighing the returns and they end up stopping support.

It’s got to be a real concern for not only Apple but also developers whether or not this is just going to become another Touch Bar situation, something that looks cool on the face of it but in general day to day is barely used and is in the drawer collecting dust.

Its going to be interesting put it that way.

 

[Absrnd]

The way I see it...
maybe the news about Tim wanted do the release now, could be true, because the Vision Pro might have leaked when they invited developers to make content for it, as you need the device to properly test, it's not like a new iPhone that can be done in software.

showing it now has 2 main advantages for us, there might be a load of good stuff to use when it finally sells next year,
and second (not so much for Apple) the opposition now sees what they are up against, and hopefully also go more AR-VR, and this could cause faster development of new AR-VR tech

 

[Velin]

Want to win the game? Step one: put your team on the field.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

No... they NEED the dev community to build up an app base for it before release. Even at 6 months it's tight, though they could have enough apps to show the "possibilities" by then.

And with what went into making this work properly... if you think anyone can catch up in a year, with the quality and at even EQUIVALENT price... not likely. This is not a generic headset that you can just slot another one in to substitute. There are 3 legs to this stool... Manufacturing, Engineering, and Software. Could someone make an equivalent display, without the front "Eyes" display & 3D view that gives as good an image for less money? Sure. But would it have the eye tracking features, the hand tracking features, and the App Store? Well.... 😬

Devs don’t need to “build up an app base” — I believe that Apple has made it fairly easy to convert existing apps to work in visionOS, so they should have plenty of apps available by the time it is released.

My opinion of value for the device is not dependent on third party app availability. I’ll be perfectly content with Apple apps, viewing media, and using it as a monitor for my Mac.