[phmqk76]

There was a lot of breathless coverage about how Steve Jobs was irreplaceable, and Apple hummed along for years after his death and seemed to do not only fine, but achieved heights Jobs maybe never even dreamed of. But the columns were right - Apple is completely rudderless and has been for years. Apple literally prints money increasingly from “services,” which is made up in large part of rent-seeking. It’s why they’re willing to burn their reputation by fighting antitrust regulation until the bitter end.

Steve Jobs was Walt Disney - Apple didn’t invent products to make money, they made money to invent more products. Now, the bean counters are in charge. I’m an Apple fanboy for 25 years now, and I find their latest products, and the company itself, now completely charmless. Apple Vision was always going to be a flop because nobody gives two shits about how many pixels you can strap to your face; they care about the experience. And Apple Vision gives you precious little content to experience. Jobs would have never shipped this product without the content to make it shine. But he died a lifetime ago in tech…

[crooked-v]

> Jobs would have never shipped this product without the content to make it shine.

This feels like a whole lot of revisionism that ignores the state of the first iPhone, which had an entire feature set that amounted to "new UX paradigm, plus basic media apps and web browser".

[phmqk76]

The iPhone did exactly what it set out to do. Steve Jobs sold it as three devices in one - a phone, iPod, and web browser. It delivered beautifully. I owned it shortly after launch and immediately fell in love. I don’t know anyone who can say the same for Apple Vision Pro.

[microtherion]

I imagine there must be a special level of hell for Steve Jobs nostalgics, generously equipped with Power Mac G4 cubes, hockey puck mice, and iPod Wi-Fis…

As I see it, Apple has created some successful new product lines after Jobs: AirPods are a definite success, Watches are reasonably successful.

Existing product lines were improved. I don't think anybody would want to go back to iPhone 4S. Macs have successfully made another architecture transition, and modern MacBook Pros have corrected course from the trend of thinness above all else.

[kalleboo]

The original Apple TV was so bare-bones that Steve Jobs had to qualify it as being "just a hobby"

edit: I'm not going to defend what Apple is doing now (I'd describe Tim Cook as the Steve Ballmer of Apple), I'm just saying that Jobs wasn't as perfect as the tinted rear-view mirror may make him seem, he had plenty of misses. iPod HiFi? Wtf?

[wkat4242]

It was just a hobby, it was really just a cut-down Mac mini with a trimmed version of OS X that would just boot into Front Row. It wasn't really more than that.

It only got serious when Apple got into the ARM market with iOS.

I guess the market wasn't ready either. At the time when the first Apple TV was around, many people still had very slow DSL.

[MBCook]

The story I remember hearing is that the iPod hi-fi basically existed because jobs wanted it to. He saw other people making iPod speakers and he wanted to make one to his standards.

Of course as great as it may have been (I never used one) most people just wanted something for 50 bucks. I’d be very interested to know how many units they ever sold total.

[citizen_friend]

> without the content to make it shine.

It’s a computer. Read internet, listen to a podcast, download some apps, edit some photos, etc.

[djur]

But I already have a computer that doesn't require me to put a helmet on.

[citizen_friend]

Maybe, but phrasing it as a lack of content sounds like you’re waiting for a new game cartridge to come out. A more interesting criticism is what tools or workflows you can’t do.

> helmet

The exaggeration tells me this isn’t really something you want to examine.

[phmqk76]

Of course it can replicate existing workflows and show existing content. The exciting potential of this class of device lies in the immersive experiences that exist only as demos. This is content that must be tailor-made for VR/AR/XR. Honestly, I own a Quest 2, and I barely use it. Not because of the resolution, but because the immersive content just isn’t there. There are demos, but nothing I can sink my teeth into. Apple is in a prime position to change that, it they don’t really even acknowledge the problem.

[citizen_friend]

I'm specifically comparing with quest. Yeah they have a few media apps, etc, but AVP is a complete operating system (with printing).

[djur]

The Vision Pro straps completely around the head and weighs more than many bicycle helmets. Where's the exaggeration?

The comment you were replying to said "without the content _to make it shine_". The implication here is that being able to do the things you can already do, except with a large set of goggles on your head, is not a sufficient selling point for the product. Apple clearly wants to sell the Vision Pro as a new way of computing, not as an entertainment product. Microsoft felt the same way about Windows 95, I'm sure, but that didn't stop them from including content meant to convince people that their new expensive "multimedia PC" was worth the investment.

[citizen_friend]

> Where's the exaggeration?

It's just clear you're not interested in AR/VR so your criticism of AVP carries less weight. Nothing would satisfy you. If you actually held an examined one of those you would know how incredibly tiny it is.

[djur]

You're making several unfounded and false assumptions here. There is also no world in which I would accept the proposition that a pair of goggles that covers half the face and juts out past the tip of the nose is "incredibly tiny".