[hackernewds]

> Apple made the first mainstream acceptable smartwatch by smoothing over a lot of the complaints about their competitors,

Really? Why do Apple fanboys make these kinda claims.. same as wireless Bluetooth pods, or fingerprint readers, or faceID. There are ample examples of these done well on the hardware side prior. The main advantage Apple has is its seamless integration with software, which of course it pairs well with iOS because nothing else is allowed to.

[theshrike79]

"Done well" was the Nokia motto. They did solid phones with a ton of features. Look what happened to them?

Their problem was that none of the features was _usable_. It was like they released the first MVP the engineering team got done and forgot that people needed to use it too. But it gave them a bonus and another line on spec sheet, so all was good.

For example Nokia had Copy & Paste years before Apple. But it was shit. They _had_ it, but you could copy very specific text bits to other very specific locations. Even Android had the same issue, you could copy some bits not others.

Apple isn't innovating, they haven't for a long time. They rarely come up with something "new" that _nobody_ has done yet.

What they are pretty much the best at is getting the tech everyone else has tried and packaging it to a usable form factor for the normal non-Hackernews consumer.

Wireless BT headphones existed before the Airpods, but they made it so seamless even my mom could do it and hasn't needed any help with them. Open box, insert in ear, done.

[m4rtink]

You mean how a mole from Microsoft got in, used the feud between the old school Symbian team and the promising Maemo/MeeGo project to burn the whole mobile division down via nonsensical switch to Windows Mobile ?

[whywhywhywhy]

> For example Nokia had Copy & Paste years before Apple. But it was shit

To be fair iOS copy and paste is still shit today, selecting and copying/pasting is really one of the worst experiences on iOS.

[theshrike79]

You can use the space key to drag around the selection cursor.

My point was more about the fact that you can copy an image in most apps and paste it to pretty much any field anywhere. It'll just work. Same with other rich data.

You couldn't do that with any previous C&P implementations, there were hard limits on what you could copy and where it could be pasted.

[slg]

You clearly missed my point entirely. I'm not a fanboy saying Apple's products are the best. I even specifically said their success is "due to their marketing prowess and the strength of their brand just as much as their technical expertise."

They weren't the first smartwatch, but Apple is the company most responsibly for changing arbitrary societal metrics of "mainstream acceptance" like the percentage of people who would wear a smartwatch on a first date. That seems like an obvious observation and a "win" even if smartwatches aren't as ubiquitous as smartphones. I think the Vision Pro will follow a similar trajectory of success in that it will take years before anyone uses that word "success", but a few years from now you'll get on a plane and notice more than a few people wearing headsets and that will be because of Apple.

[Thlom]

I agree with you, but not about the Vision Pro. I could see the potential and use cases for the iPhone, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, Apple TV. This headset though? It's a gimmick. I can see some niche use cases for it in very specific industries and in gaming. But I don't see that "normal" people would want to spend significant money on this. Not even if the price dropped to $999.

[codethief]

I would consider my use case (desire) of comfortably working from, say, a coffee shop without having to bring my 24" screen pretty "normal" and non-niche.

[Thlom]

Maybe, but you would look like a dork. Most people don't want to look like dorks, so I doubt we'll see widespread use of this product in public.

[MockObject]

People used to look like dorks walking down the street staring at a smartphone, or pulling an entire computer out of a bag at a coffee shop.

We'll adjust.