[BudaDude]

Thats a pretty hot take.

It's way too early to say the Vision Pro is a flop. Remember, the first Apple Watch received mixed reviews. Yet, after several updates and feature additions, it became one of the most, if not the most, popular wearables.

History often repeats itself with Apple products initially deemed failures. To illustrate, consider the initial reception of the iPod, as discussed in this link:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.5...

One more thing, Valve hasn't exited the hardware market. The Steam Deck is a clear indication of their ongoing commitment.

[jwells89]

Yeah Vision Pro strikes me as typical Apple first gen more than anything. It might in reality be a flop, but I’d wait a few hardware generations before declaring as such with any level of certainty.

[DiabloD3]

But.... the Watch was a failure and failed to find its market fit. It never took off with biohackers, it isn't useful for interacting with products or services or any communications service, and it can't even really tell the time unless you charge it every other day.

The Steam Deck otoh became an absolute hit on day one and completely sold out in short order. It sold waaaayyy better than Valve ever thought it would.

[taeric]

Vision Pro is going to be an interesting watch. I doubt it is bad gear, but it is hard to really understand the market Apple is chasing. In particular, the consumer VR market is dominated by gamers to an absurd degree. Trying to pull casuals into it feels way too strained. Similarly, professional use doesn't seem to be a strong value add, either. Will be interesting to see where things land.

[J_Shelby_J]

Vision Pro is to meta quest 3 what Starbucks is to local coffee shops.

Meaning, quest 3 is amazing, and Vision Pro is the best thing to happen to AR.

I hope steam doesn’t pull out. Zuck can preach about openness but the platform is still antagonistic to pc users.

[taeric]

I'm still rather bullish against AR. The passthrough of the PSVR2 is nice, to get your controllers in hand and room setup. Otherwise, I don't see the value add, just yet. Heck, the best games make use of the headphones so well that I feel like I'm already in another room.

[TravelPiglet]

Apple Watch is a flop. It's not delivered on anything other than being a good fitness tracker.

[prewett]

I would dearly love to have a flop like the Apple Watch... If a product with tens of billions in yearly revenue is a flop, well, sign me up!

[smoldesu]

At this point, Apple could release a line of $99 drink cozies and sell out 5 minutes after they announce it. The fact that people buy what Apple sells isn't really an indication of whether the product is good or not.

[TillE]

It's been selling well for almost 9 years now! You can call it many things, but it is clearly not a "flop".

[smoldesu]

I didn't call it a "flop", I said it's status as a flop doesn't correlate to how good a product is. The Butterfly Keyboard never flopped, but it also never got a legitimate competitor. People bought them because they were forced to, same as they were with Airpods and arguably the Apple Watch.

I feel the same way about a lot of Apple products. The Magic Trackpad would sell out instantly if it got a new model with USB-C - but Apple knows they can ship more Lightning cables if they avoid it. It's part of the sinister math that goes into making you and I rely on Apple's constant... ahem, Innovation.

[zlsa]

The Magic Trackpad comes with a USB-C (computer) to Lightning (Magic Trackpad) cable.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2D3AM/A/magic-trackpad-...

(I agree with you, for what it's worth - Apple is weirdly slow to update some of their products; AirPods Max stand out here as missing USB-C and the lossless audio of AirPods Pro.)

[FirmwareBurner]

>If a product with tens of billions in yearly revenue is a flop, well, sign me up!

Windows 11 also sold incredibly well yet I still consider it a flop.

[iamthepieman]

I take it you mean flop differently than a successful product from a business and profit perspective. Like a comedian can flop around on stage in a hilarious bit of slapstick humor which you might call a successful flop. But the two hour comedy special the slapstick is part of might be panned by critics and audiences and that would be a flop of an entirely different sort.

[WheatMillington]

Over 50 million units sold and the most popular wearable device ever made. Yeah, total flop.

[smoldesu]

> History often repeats itself with Apple products initially deemed failures.

Maybe, but that never saved the Lisa, the Newton or the Butterfly keyboard. Sometimes, Apple takes a big risk that's far too early, expensive or simply doesn't pay off.

I don't think it's a particularly hot take to say that VR/AR content creation has been stagnant for a decade. Valve couldn't save it by moving mountains, Meta barely made it mass-marketable with a barebones MVP, and Apple is... gentrifying the higher-end. It's not so much an insult towards Apple as it is to the field and it's market fit. Nobody has had an "iPhone moment" yet, not even Apple.

[HeWhoLurksLate]

In the case of the butterfly keyboard, market fit is a very different thing from engineering failure