Apple Developing Version of visionOS for Future Smart Glasses

Dear Apple.

I rather you handle a proper Siri. That would cool.

I am interested in AR when the tech doesn't make us look like Cyclops from Xmen.

Why does Mark change his idea of what the Vision Pro is depending on what narrative he’s trying to push?
Makes it really hard to take someone seriously when one second they’re calling a product a “flop” then the next second they are saying that Apple “ doesn’t even have the capacity to ship these in large quantities”.
If they can’t even make large quantities, there is literally no room for the product to flop.
“Flop” absolutely does not mean “sold less than the iPhone”. If that were the case, the Mac would have been in trouble… decades ago.
For something to flop, there has to be an expectation of success, and there never was with the Vision Pro.
Everything down to the price, to the design, to even the fact that it launched in the middle of the winter screams “ not intended for most people”.

You don't say!

It’s $3,500 and people can barely afford food as is. I think it’s quite obvious it was priced out of a lot of people’s bracket.

how can anything that sold at all at that price point even be a flop? the general public laughs at prices like that.

Exactly. It wasn't expected to sell more than 500k units because that's how many panels Sony could produce. The idea that this was going to sell millions and millions was a fantasy that only existed on the internet. Do we really think that Apple thought that a product that has a starting price higher than the average American's monthly take-home pay was going to be a smash hit? Nope - this was to show what is possible, get developers and content creators working on apps and use cases etc. Of course Apple isn't going to introduce it while saying "this is a tech demo for rich early adopters to help us improve our offering when the tech is more mature; it's not for you".

Now you can argue they should have announced it as a "developer preview" or waited another year or two, but as someone who uses mine daily, I'm personally glad they didn't.

Forgive me if this is dumb, but

If the issue with smart glasses is that you can't fit a computer in the glasses... can't they just tether an iPhone-sized computer to a pair of lightweight glasses?

This wasn't so clunky as to stop them shipping it with Apple Vision Pro.

Move the heaviness to something that sits in your pocket out the way, so we can enjoy lightweight AR glasses sooner rather than later.

I just want a new Vision Pro with the same quality but better fov and cheaper

Everyone wants the same (everything) for cheaper. But as the article says...

first by releasing a lower-end device with less expensive components.

The path to this "Cheaper" Vpro Jr is subtraction of FABs. As I understand it, the most expensive part of it "as is" is 4K-per-eye. There is abundant competition at the cheaper prices we want with 1080p-per-eye or less. And that's likely a major part of what makes them so much cheaper. What's the gripe about THEIR cuts at this sort of product?

"BLURRY"

Nevertheless, as we fixate on cheaper, we're basically calling for blurry too. And when we get what we think we want, the gripe will then be "blurry:" "the price is much better but the blurriness makes me nauseous", "they took away the best part", etc.


As to glasses form factor, in imagination that will be ideal... much less bulky... much more "normal" looking in public settings. Such products also already exist. What's the issue with them? Without blocking out the light from AROUND the edges, daylight/bright light seeps in. Think about how your Mac or iDevice screens look out in the bright day vs. how they look in the darker night. If you don't block light, you get light intrusion... which then takes away from the experience of watching whatever you are watching.

What does the R in either VR or AR stand for? You inhibit the illusion of R if you allow light to "fog" the 'vision'.

When you go to the theater to watch a movie or live show, do they leave the lights up? No. Why not? Because the view of the screen or stage is much improved without the theater lights. Does your TV look better in brightest day/light or evening night?

Why do we wear sunglasses at all? To try to block out bright light from hitting our eyes and making our view of the world LESS. So why do we want virtual views with lots of light sneaking in the gaps all around the lenses? I presume we are imagining we can have the very same crisp, clear, Vpro view in a sunglasses form factor. And we are very likely WRONG about that for reasons just shared, among others.



I encourage all people with interests it BOTH concepts to go try the competition and see the blur and light intrusion experiences yourself. If it's fine to you, buy the competition. They generally cost a lot less than the "highest end iPhones." But if you don't like it because of blur and/or light intrusion, perhaps some of the "bulk" and "seals" of Vpro will suddenly make much more sense.