[saturdaysaint]

Could it be better spent? I'm not an impulsive tech buyer (rocking a 3 year old iPhone at the moment) but I think that every so often, being an early adopter show-off is completely worth the early adopter premium, on top of the personal enjoyment of experiencing a polished breakthrough technology.

With the first gen iPhone, it was really delightful to show dozens of people the future. Likewise, I have a strong inkling that the friends/family I show VR to will have their minds blown in a way that will be great fun to watch, providing them and me a lot more pleasure than if we were to wait a few years.

[eterm]

The 1st gen iPhone didn't even have 3g, was that really worth it?

[wyattpeak]

Yes. Yes it was.

People can wax lyrical all day about how there was nothing technically sophisticated about the phone, but the day the iPhone came out was the day the average user started caring about that sophistication.

[saiya-jin]

early adopter != polished new technology. just one question - what games/software would you be using it after buying right now? usually bundled stuff last couple of days, max weeks

[saturdaysaint]

If it's a breakthrough, I'd argue that a good amount of polish is there. Going back to the 1G iPhone - Safari had its limitations, but was overall an incredibly fluid experience that would immediately sell everyone on the iPhone's utility.

There are a lot of games that sound intriguing (the Oculus Toybox and Eve Valkyrie sound like good intros), but what really sold me are reports that when asked to jump off of a 1,000 foot high precipice in Minecraft in the Rift, most people can't do it. I've never seen someone flinch doing the same in Assassin's Creed, with it's staggeringly detailed graphics. I'm excited to show people that and similar experiences that dramatically trip the brain's sense of presence.

[newman314]

Meh. My first iPhone was a 5s :) and I was happily late to the game.