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by hammyhavoc 622 days ago
Zune never took off just like HoloLens, Band, Kinect and Windows Phone didn't take off—not because they were in any way late, but because Microsoft is never "all-in" with any of these ventures.

The Xbox was somewhat of an anomaly owing to exclusives like Halo and Gears of War, but it's floundering, and in some countries, like Japan, it's just never taken off, period.

Apple Vision doesn't seem to be a sensation in terms of sales figures, despite the HoloLens beating Apple to the punch, and the stereotypical nonsense being "Apple is always late, but they always do it right". HoloLens just got killed along with Windows Mixed Reality.

Hell, even the Microsoft Band beat the Apple Watch to market.

The problem is that merely having a presence in a niche doesn't guarantee success as it once did. Now, you need to actually iterate, innovate, and satisfy the minimum expected threshold of solving real problems. This is also what Tim Cook's Apple struggles with these days.

What's the killer app for Apple Vision? What was it for HoloLens?

When digital technology was new and exciting, having anything would draw buyers. Now, we're spoiled for choice, things move fast, it isn't years between models, it's months to a year. Early adopters tend to get a bad experience too.

2 comments

> Hell, even the Microsoft Band beat the Apple Watch to market.

We weren't making any money off of them and the 100% failure rate of Band 2 doomed the project.

Which sucked, customers loved us and we had features that still aren't matched by anything else on the market even today.

Wow, can I just say that my family and I loved our Bands? We had issues with the plastics breaking down on the first gen (had them replaced a few times due to them becoming unwearably uncomfortable due to it within the space of a couple months), but I'll be damned if it wasn't one of my favourite gadgets of all time in terms of tasteful design and innovative ideas.

Many a familial glass of wine was raised to whoever you might have been whilst discussing how much we loved them!

I have some blog posts about the making of Band, if you want to know more about how it was developed feel free to have a read!

https://meanderingthoughts.hashnode.dev/cooperative-multitas...

Band, Microsoft Band, oh how heartbreaking it is to read about the name. I once owned a Microsoft Band and was even excited about the second generation. Its design was captivating. But now it's all gone. My only remaining first-generation Band became unusable due to the notorious cracking issue. Now, I'm stuck with my Fitbit, which lacks design taste and inevitably has battery issues every three years. It's a product I have to patiently endure to keep using. Such a pity.
I hear ya. I bought Bands for the whole family as we were all-in on Windows Phone/Mobile. Beautiful ideas left to wither on the vine. Truly a pity.