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Vision Pro Future Uncertain as All Headset Development Is Seemingly Paused
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I actually do want Apple to focus on Apple Glasses. They have everything they need to make it work with the Apple ecosystem.
Apple Watch can be used for gesture navigation.
Apple AirPods music, audio interpretation
Apple iPhone, coprocessing
Apple Glasses, the HUD for daily lifestyle use.
So the pieces are there, unfortunately Apple did not think it thoroughly at the time.
Apple Watch can be used for gesture navigation.
Apple AirPods music, audio interpretation
Apple iPhone, coprocessing
Apple Glasses, the HUD for daily lifestyle use.
So the pieces are there, unfortunately Apple did not think it thoroughly at the time.
Are you suggesting the glasses bring it altogether into a standalone thing?
It'd be enormously cumbersome to be requiring an AW, Airpods, an iPhone AND the glasses all at once.
I honestly think such a convoluted setup would be incredibly unappealing.
I just wish it actually had a bigger field of vision. It was the major thing I noticed when I tried it in the shop.
Yup. As much as I like cook and appreciate what he did for apple but right now it really becomes obvious that he enters some sort of Biden-esque stage..
Main critique. I’d also argue that for prolonged and serious working sessions, even the hi res screens aren’t cutting it as a fully fledged screen replacement if you had to use it for several 9 hour days.
There isn't much evidence Apple was ever planning a different Vision product line to come out so soon. This is largely a speculative narrative. All of the rumors could have been for simply a 3rd generation Apple Vision Pro. Rumors suggested more expensive materials like titanium and cutting edge display tech to achieve a slimmer design. This doesn't sound like cutting costs to me. It sounds like Apple was planning a non "s-year" hardware revision to replace the existing Pro line which is having an "s year" like revision come out soon.
So many rumors have been pure speculation. People wish casting a magical cheaper and lighter version. But a worse Apple Vision product would suck and no one would want it no matter how cheap. I hardly like mine at the current "pro" quality and think it's severely lacking to deliver on its promises. If I can't recommend the Pro to anyone then why would I recommend a worse product? It makes no sense but it's what people think they want before they've actually owned and used one.
At this point, a 3rd generation of AVP could already be wrapped up and the team was ready to move on. It's hard to say how much the source of this rumor actually knows or what's just hear say.
So in summary. I think there's little evidence Apple was ever planning another Headset line and was just iterating on a single product. That Single product was likely following an every other year, major hardware revision cycle so the non "s year" model could have been in dev for a long time and been wrapping up right about now. With a second "s year" model following, resources could be moved off of it and onto a new product since it requires less attention.
So many rumors have been pure speculation. People wish casting a magical cheaper and lighter version. But a worse Apple Vision product would suck and no one would want it no matter how cheap. I hardly like mine at the current "pro" quality and think it's severely lacking to deliver on its promises. If I can't recommend the Pro to anyone then why would I recommend a worse product? It makes no sense but it's what people think they want before they've actually owned and used one.
At this point, a 3rd generation of AVP could already be wrapped up and the team was ready to move on. It's hard to say how much the source of this rumor actually knows or what's just hear say.
So in summary. I think there's little evidence Apple was ever planning another Headset line and was just iterating on a single product. That Single product was likely following an every other year, major hardware revision cycle so the non "s year" model could have been in dev for a long time and been wrapping up right about now. With a second "s year" model following, resources could be moved off of it and onto a new product since it requires less attention.
It was DOA as soon as they announced the price.
The only actual sales were the first 2 weeks when influencers bought them to make content and then returned it.
The only actual sales were the first 2 weeks when influencers bought them to make content and then returned it.
To add onto this, the most likely scenario is that the sales numbers (for various reasons we've all articulated) so woefully underwhelmed, that they canned all plans beyond a chip bump (which just helps them make them easier/cheaper) and are pivoting to glasses to see if that's more of the right track.
I can't emphasize enough how much the AVP narrative got ret-conned around here. It was never supposed to be some limited "dev kit" release.
It. Flopped.
HARD.
That is what AVP is.
A flop.
Oh really?
How Apple's Vision Pro is helping this ALS patient to perform simple tasks
Mark, 64, from Pennsylvania, who has ALS, has become the first patient in the world to use an Apple Vision Pro to help him communicate.
New research may lead to brain-controlled Apple Vision Pro without surgery | AppleInsider
A new study may ultimately help stroke sufferers, plus people with ALS, spinal cord injury, and more, be able to use Apple Vision Pro to help them communicate without needing invasive surgery first.
* - Bold type mine
For sure, AVP is not good enough as it is now. It's why I can't get why anyone thinks a cheaper product with a worse quality screen would ever hold water.
they need
- higher display resolution
- better lenses with wider field of view
- better passthrough quality
Without those the price/comfort doesn't even matter. I can't work on a blurry screen where I need to keep turning my head to see parts of it in focus. If I'm taking it off and feeling relief I can see the world clearly again it's not the kind of "vision" I want when we've come so fare with even cheap Hi-DPI displays.
realistically… how much of these do you think they sell a month?
like, sales can’t be that high but there are also billions of people in the world.
100 a month? not even? lol
like, sales can’t be that high but there are also billions of people in the world.
100 a month? not even? lol
I had the same impression when I tried the VP at the AppleStore. The field of vision didn’t feel bigger than my Quest 3. The feeling I got though was that VP felt wider ( more space horizontally), while the Quest was less wide but taller ( vertically ). I wonder if Apple did that intentionally as one of the selling point is watching movies, especially when they are in widescreen format.
I'm disappointed to learn that apple doesn't have the resources to work on both headsets and glasses at the same time.
Oh really?
How Apple's Vision Pro is helping this ALS patient to perform simple tasks
Mark, 64, from Pennsylvania, who has ALS, has become the first patient in the world to use an Apple Vision Pro to help him communicate.abcnews.go.com
New research may lead to brain-controlled Apple Vision Pro without surgery | AppleInsider
A new study may ultimately help stroke sufferers, plus people with ALS, spinal cord injury, and more, be able to use Apple Vision Pro to help them communicate without needing invasive surgery first.appleinsider.com
* - Bold type mine
One can find stories like this for most any device from any manner of manufacturers.
Isolated examples don't necessarily justify continued investment and participation or not for a company like Apple.
There are millions of happy iPhone Mini customers also (I'm one of them).
How's that going?
I agree. As soon as I started getting interested in smart glasses and looking at reviews of the Meta stuff and the Even Realities G1 I started thinking what an advantage the Apple Watch would be for Apple because of how it could make use of Watch gestures to control stuff.
You're right about the other stuff as well and with the iPhone doing the coprocessing that is a 100% proprietary connection between the glasses and the phone so I wonder whether Apple could even look at using more of its existing proprietary technology to get additional advantage there. From what I've read theoretically the bandwidth on Apple's ultrawideband chip is pretty decent (0.5 to 1Gbps) if it ever wanted to use it for more sophisticated data communications. As a chip designed for low power consumption with the (inconsequential for a phone-to-glasses connection) trade-off of limited range that might be another useful tool Apple already has that it could use to reduce power consumption in the glasses thus maximising battery life.
My only slight caveat on what you say is regarding the AirPods. While I agree that AirPods can/would/should be an important part of the overall picture I would not want Apple to lean into that so far as to neglect the quality of the speakers built into the glasses themselves. A couple of fairly well known display glasses manufacturers (XReal and Viture) have partnered with well known audio manufacturers Bose and Harman Kardon respectively so that they can each boast about the quality of the speakers in their glasses. Apple obviously has loads of in-house audio expertise so it wouldn't need to partner with any external audio company but I hope the brief to its internal engineers is to make the speakers in any upcoming Apple Glasses match up to those XReal/Viture standards so that AirPods become more of a privacy and increased immersion (due to the ANC) thing rather than being a necessity to get decent audio quality.
Personally I think the Even Realities G1 are the pinnacle of what can be achieved right now in terms of creating a pair of smart glasses that really are pretty much indistinguishable from regular glasses and on top of that have what is according to user reports genuine all day (18+ hours) battery life. Their functionality is very limited - some might even say "you really call those smart?" - but the form factor is in my opinion superb. If Apple could get more "smarts" into a similar form factor that would be truly amazing and if it could also do all that with an Apple-Watch-like battery life I'd be first in line to part with a decent chunk of money to get a pair.
I'm really excited to see what sort of product Apple can come out with given all the pieces it already has and the R&D budgets it has to allow it to fill in any missing pieces and glue it all together.
I just would like to emphasize on one stunning feature: I can scroll in menues and windows, just looking at the border of a window with just the movement of my eyes. It is really amazing, what kind of assistance the AVP can provide.Oh really?
How Apple's Vision Pro is helping this ALS patient to perform simple tasks
Mark, 64, from Pennsylvania, who has ALS, has become the first patient in the world to use an Apple Vision Pro to help him communicate.
New research may lead to brain-controlled Apple Vision Pro without surgery | AppleInsider
A new study may ultimately help stroke sufferers, plus people with ALS, spinal cord injury, and more, be able to use Apple Vision Pro to help them communicate without needing invasive surgery first.
* - Bold type mine
Just to play devils advocate ... what has Apple done anytime recently to make you think they could or would "glue it all together"?
They released AVP and still haven't updated some of their own apps beyond just slapping iPad Apps in there.
Sometimes I think folks are just wish casting some amazing, hyper innovative, cutting edge, executing at the top of their game "Apple" ... that simply doesn't exist anymore, if it ever did.
Vision Pro is great tech and I hope reaches glasses form. Price will always be the downside
For content there won’t be a better device out there.
For content there won’t be a better device out there.
I still don't see why tech companies are so certain that something you wear on your face is the future of tech. I'd be surprised if this whole wearable thing ever became a thing. It's great for immersive gaming and flying FPV drones, sure. But I don't think glasses or headsets are better than a smartphone in terms of ease of interaction and non-intrusiveness.
Oh and the last thing I want is to pay for new lenses for my VR glasses each time I get a new prescription for my regular glasses. It's expensive enough as it is.
Oh and the last thing I want is to pay for new lenses for my VR glasses each time I get a new prescription for my regular glasses. It's expensive enough as it is.
This is misleading. XBox, sure, Playstation not a chance (9.5 mlilion sold in the calendar Q4 2024, 18.65 million for full year 2024).
Meta Quest 3 and 3S combined have sold MAYBE 7-10 million units total from late 2023 through today based on market share figures.
It isn't going to be.
To your point, there are enormous barriers to adoption on something that's "face worn", and very little of it has to do with "more tech" or "better tech".
People have seen too many SciFi movies or something and everyone is out of ideas and just trying to scramble around and find "the next big thing".