[steveBK123]

Yeah it really feels like a devkit they sold in hopes someone would come up with the killer app because they hadn't figured it out themselves yet.

It's a shame as it seems like they maxed out the tech specs, but given the state of the art it still ends up being too low resolution for true MacOS productivity replacement, while also being too heavy & tethered to a short lived battery pack.

Maybe a worse-is-better version that is cheaper/lighter will sell more for entertainment uses.

[bee_rider]

I guess if they just called it a devkit, nobody would have bought it. But, with the specs, price, and the ridiculous form factor, it was a devkit in all but name.

[mrguyorama]

Except there is so little investment in devs and the ecosystem that even as a devkit it falls flat. VR/AR is a teensy niche of simulation enthusiasts and a large group of people who essentially play 30 minutes of beat saber occasionally. That's not exactly a thriving market, and Apple explicitly eschewed that market entirely, because nobody sims on a mac anything, and there are no controllers to play beat saber with.

Where are the grants to devs to buy and develop something good for it? Apple just kind of expected everyone to do that work for free for them. Watching movies on an airplane is not a $3500 use case. Mirroring your desktop to a head mounted display that is too heavy and cumbersome to be a $3500 use case. Putting iPad apps into the air is not a $3500 use case.

Where's the killer app? What even IS a killer app for head mounted displays? They've been around for 30 years now. It has never been an insufficient hardware problem. The original oculus devkits were genuinely terrible, but VR IS a killer app for sim enthusiasts, so they rushed to implement it into everything they could straight away. Euro Truck Simulator was one of the earliest integrations. But that's not an Apple market and never will be.

If someone wants VR/AR to be some stupid ShadowRun heads up display for managing all the info you encounter in the world, that app should be built and iterated on first. How many average people even run an "organize and remember everything" app? What percentage of iPhone users even use the damn calendar?

[bee_rider]

I’d like Apple Maps to show up in my field of view. In that case I could even not have a phone at all. (But not like $3500 want). I agree that nobody has found a really good use case. I do wonder to what extent that is just because nobody has released an AR headset that you’d wear outside.

[rahoulb]

I have done that with XReal glasses and my phone.

But they still look kind of off when wearing them in public (slightly bigger than normal sunglasses, cable from one ear and other people can see the light from the screens from the side or back).

And the lack of integration is a pain - the phone has to be unlocked so is subject to random taps and swipes in my pocket.

However, an Apple-built Carplay-style projection into XReal type glasses could work very well - the question being how would you control it?

[bee_rider]

XReal seems super interesting. They at least have the vague shape of something that could see mass adoption.

I think it is not totally necessary to have it be impossible to tell you are wearing the things. Like walking around with earbuds or portable headphone was unusual at some point (even the walkman is less than 50 years old, right). They just have to not look deeply goofy, like current VR-pressganged-into-AR headsets do.

[aranelsurion]

Perhaps with Apple Watch and gestures?

[steveBK123]

That's the kind of HUD UX that a lower res/contrast/illumination overlay could accomplish like the Meta Orion prototype.

[dawnerd]

Exactly. They need to cut the price in half and focus on entertainment. Thats the only thing I hear friends talk about who still use theirs AVP. Wearing it longer than a movie becomes too strenuous.

[alberth]

> They need to cut the price in half

My guess, Apple knows this won't become mainstream/usage for 5+ years.

And as such, they need to bring technology from the future 5-years from now, to today ... and as such, that's why it's so expensive.

They aren't expecting people to pay $3,500 for this device when the killer app exists. But it needs to cost that in order for developers to "develop to where the puck is going" in 5-years time.