If they invest just billions more every year in the middle class, keep it from further dwindling -- then and only then would companies expect to see astronomical demand. It's basic math. Most companies are creating products to appeal to those who are big spenders, who can afford expensive toys or those who can't, but are willing to make it a dream goal
I can see why. I played around with PlayStation VR for a day before returning it as it was stupidly pointless. Not one of the games justified its existence tbh. Much better playing normally with a big HD screen.
It's one of those technologies which is for a very niche market and entertains the 'look at the shiny shiny' generation.
But if you're one of the 50 million people who already have a PS4, especially one of the people who had one on launch day or bought one in the first year or two, this is a tempting option if you want to try out "real" VR and don't want to have to deal with a gaming PC to do it.The problem is what you have just described, unknowingly. Prices are way to high for what you get. When I can buy a vr headset and use it out of the box I will. Not buying a PS4,ps VR and god knows what else just to use it. I'm not spending 800$ on an oculus that requires a 1000$ computer.
AR & VR are just capitalism creating solutions looking for a problem. Its where Steve Jobs is missing significantly. The guy just had a knack for creating things we wondered how we ever lived without them. Pioneering the graphical user interface - it was just ridiculous to think we could really type in archaic commands for the rest of our lives. If Steve did not start that fire, Bill Gates would be pushing MS-DOS 16.0 on us right now.
He pushed the need to make computers look good for a change, its not about dull, beige boxes sitting in a corner. The iMac really inspired the industry to take aesthetics seriously and create computers that didn't just focus on beauty, but functionality too.
Honestly, could you imagine carrying around 60 CDs with you in 2016? The iPod was just a logical means of carrying and easily accessing your music wherever, whenever you wanted.
Look at smartphones pre-2007; they were the hottest things, yet I never desired to own one. When Jobs demoed the iPhone in 2007, it was a eureka moment, you immediately knew this is what you wanted in a phone for a change.
The MacBook Air was a revision of what an everyday notebook computer for the masses was all about. Initially an expensive luxury for a few, it would eventually come down in cost due to efficiency in manufacturing and economies of scale. Which computer do you think is the most popular among Mac users today? Its the MacBook Air of course. Certainly, no one would predict that in 2008.
Steve Jobs rightly saw that, not everyone honestly needs the full power and complexity of a MacBook Pro, Air or MacBook. Hence the iPad, because we all have that friend or family member who simply just wants to check email, browse the web, use social media, basically just consume content. An obvious market was there all along and it was tapped into.
The iPhone 4 was really about making a better smartphone: Retina display, FaceTime, A4 performance etc.
The Retina MacBook Pro which was probably in the pipeline focused on what we are we doing with computers and what are we planning to do with them 5 years from now. When was the last time you really used an optical drive. If you are a creative/professional user, what do you want out of staring at your screen all day. So, there was obviously a market.
The iPhone 6 Plus was really about tapping into market demand, responding to the competition and this was obviously a smart strategic move. We don't know if the iPhone 6 designs and the iPad Mini were ever blessed by Steve Jobs, but they did find a niche.
When we arrive at present day, we see more solutions looking for problems. We now have a glorified notification wrist band. The rest of the industry is gung ho on stuff that honestly has no mass market appeal. AR/VR are not a recent holy grail, this is something the industry has been tackling for ages.
I am sure Steve Jobs had access to it before anyone. If he saw a potential for mass market appeal, he would have already designed a vision for where it would make sense when the technology was ready. He didn't and he didn't tackle everything, like the TV and smart watch, home automation or vehicles. He was narrow in his focus. Not denying he experimented with the ideas, but that's not different from keeping x86 versions of OS X in development for 5 years without anyone outside of Apple knowing.
I don't know what Jobs would have done today (I wish he had done the surgery from early then we would have found out). Its just, we are going through a period of doldrums right now. I sense, if we were to know the real truth, everybody: Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Google are all panicking. They are throwing everything at the wall hoping it sticks but the reality is, we are back to the days of 1985 to 1996. The industry is truly rudderless.
One of the obvious things you learn from Steve Jobs and Silicon Valley is that engineers are at their core tasteless and talentless. Jobs pragmatism and lack of ability to write code balanced things out, not to mention the vision and logical common sense. This gave Jobs the ability to see both sides of the coin and to really use it to put both sides under manners, the engineers and the consumers. This is something the industry lacks right now. As much as Jony Ive might have been Jobs soulmate at Apple, he is consumed too much by design and aesthetics and fails to balance it out with being practical.
At this point, general demand is focused on things like food, housing, a car, and gas. That's great for those government lobbying bodies because they sell essentials that don't care about minimum wage because demand won't change no matter what. You always need to eat. You always need to drive to work. In order to have any mass demand for expensive entertainment devices, there has to be a mass of people who can afford to demand non-essential purchases. Everyone I show the Vive to really likes the technology, but most wouldn't spend $800 and get a system with a good GPU to get it.
Right now, VR is an experience for young adults with good jobs and no student debt and their friends. That's not a big demographic right now. I know pockets of friends who like to go over to other friends' houses to share the VR system. In this economy, VR isn't something that each individual consumer purchases for themselves like they would a phone or a laptop.
Those darn kids and their books. They only entertain the 'I'm not doing hard labor' generation.
Those darn kids and their radios. They only entertain the 'listen to the wavey wavey' generation.
Those darn kids and their TV's. They only entertain the 'look at the shiny shiny' generation.
PSVR has a way to go before it can really be considered full-featured VR. It's limited, and its price tag relative to something like the Vive reflects that. I'd assume that you didn't invest that much in games if you returned it the next day, and most of the PSVR games worth anything right now are in the $20-30+ range.
You also don't get the same games you do with full VR like the Vive and Vanishing Realms as PSVR doesn't let you crouch behind a rock to hide from something or bend down to look underneath a desk for items and then literally walk over, and hide under it.
If you turn around and block the glowing balls on the motion controllers with your body, they lose tracking. That limits most PSVR experiences to just looking toward the camera and interacting, which isn't that different from a big 3D TV. With the Vive, you usually lose your real-world orientation by the time you're done. The first time that you have a half-robot fall right on top of your head in Raw Data on a Vive, you'll definitely be able to tell the difference between a flat-screen tv and VR.
If PSVR makes it to a 2nd gen with better tracking and a larger area for playing, then it might be able to incorporate some gameplay mechanics that are better in VR. I would argue that being able to physically position yourself like the character in your game would will always be more immersive than just grabbing a controller and seeing your character do it on the screen.
I don't think that VR will have the same long-term issues as 3D. My mom can enjoy it, and she can't handle RealD 3D in theaters or the 3DS due to motion sickness, so it won't have that barrier for entry. VR will become a mature and possibly mainstream market when you can buy it like you buy a monitor; one headset for every VR experience you want to have. If Vive-quality headsets and controllers were suddenly sold with a system that can handle it for $400, I would expect the outlook on VR to change overnight.
Why is this related to Apple? They don't even make a VR capable computer!
AR & VR are just capitalism creating solutions looking for a problem.
Why don't you ask Apple how myopic they are? They are the ones making rubbish computers that can not handle VR...and clearly have no interest making any.How myopic are you? A lot of us are interested in expanded technology scopes, and how they may relate in the future.
I do hope the DNA is at Apple to truly create something truly purposeful of AR/VR. Right now, I just not seeing it, I am not getting that "s***ing" my pants feeling when Jobs demoed Aqua with photo realistic icons, swiping the lock screen, taking the air out of the manila envelope. Of course, Jobs story is a unique one, the idea that you have to perfect whatever you do from the inside out is not something everyone can and wish to strive to. Jony Ive certainly carries a large percentage of that trait, but at the same time, he has his own personal experiences.And then you go on to give the justification for VR.
As consumers strive for ever bigger & higher resolution screens, there will (akin to shifting from "more higher capacity CDs" to "streaming cellular media") be market for full field of view coverage in a tiny lightweight package.
What you're stumbling on is akin to how crappy MP3 players were pre-iPod. VR headsets are improving, but still haven't hit that magic moment. Someone will eventually find the breakthrough.
I am consumed by capitalism? I am now an Apple fanboy? I am in denial? I am experiencing nostalgia?I have a MacBook Pro, iPhone 6s and 4 Windows PCs. In fact, I bought my first Mac and iPhone last year. Prior to that, I only owned a 3rd gen iPod Touch and a shuffle. Does that sound like a fan boy to you? Your problem is you are consumed by capitalism and the machinery behind it, which is to buy more, more, more because it has a bitten Apple on it.
Certainly, Apple still has a strong presence in industrial design. The reality is, the company is certainly lost in one aspect of the company's characteristics. I am a huge Michael Jackson fan, but the last Michael Jackson album I bought was Invincible. The truth is, Michael was no longer interested in music after 2002, and anything that was released after his death was just the record company desperate to capitalize on his death. They released a couple posthumous albums in 2010 and 2014. Xscape is actually a good effort, but you could honestly sense Michael would never approve of it.
I purchase electronics to add value to my life. It took me 9 years to buy an iPhone, even though Apple released one every year since 2007. I went to the Apple store last month while visiting the states. Had the cash ready to buy a iPhone 7, but I said to myself, what do I honestly need of this I can't currently get out of my iPhone 6s?
Your problem is, you are in denial that "One More Thing" is truly dead and you are trying to hold on to some nostalgia that no longer exist. Steve Jobs said it, the products they make, others will one day follow. I certainly won't be loyal to a brand because of a logo. I don't plan to aimlessly walk off a cliff either for everything they make under the sun and the same goes for every other electronics company. I don't need a Surface Studio, Surface Book, Oculus Rift and all the other industry gimmicks that have popped up over the past 5 years.
Pioneering the graphical user interface - it was just ridiculous to think we could really type in archaic commands for the rest of our lives. If Steve did not start that fire, Bill Gates would be pushing MS-DOS 16.0 on us right now.
Honestly, could you imagine carrying around 60 CDs with you in 2016? The iPod was just a logical means of carrying and easily accessing your music wherever, whenever you wanted.
Steve Jobs rightly saw that, not everyone honestly needs the full power and complexity of a MacBook Pro, Air or MacBook. Hence the iPad, because we all have that friend or family member who simply just wants to check email, browse the web, use social media, basically just consume content. An obvious market was there all along and it was tapped into.
We don't know if the iPhone 6 designs and the iPad Mini were ever blessed by Steve Jobs, but they did find a niche.
I am sure Steve Jobs had access to (AR/VR) before anyone. If he saw a potential for mass market appeal, he would have already designed a vision for where it would make sense when the technology was ready.
One of the obvious things you learn from Steve Jobs and Silicon Valley is that engineers are at their core tasteless and talentless. Jobs pragmatism and lack of ability to write code balanced things out, not to mention the vision and logical common sense.
Technology is moving faster than the human population can absorb it. There is a threshold.
It was set up by Intel. I was dealing with a GTX 1080 and some 12 core unreleased Xeon processor. It ran pretty smoothly, the resolution was just terrible.Whatever was making it sickening or nauseous for you has to be from a crappy PC kit they hooked it up with. The problem, I suspect, is NOT the VR unit but the PC kit's hardware specs.
I've tried the HTC Vive demo a few months ago in October and have not had any vertigo at all. It was high resolution enough to work smoothly. The tracking was on par and the cameras worked perfectly since I could see myself and others surrounding me in a little corner screen in the goggles.
Oh and headphones can be attached to the goggles for a more immersive experience, but it's optional I believe.
The VR unit is about $700-800 in the USA and requires a PC kit such as Alienware or whatnot with powerful specs.