from Hacker News

Apple might be getting into VR at the worst possible time

by carlycue on 4/6/23, 2:54 PM with 45 comments

• by vannevar on 4/6/23, 3:19 PM

  >It’s also not totally clear why we need an Apple headset right now.

  It's worth noting that in 2008 it wasn't clear why we needed an Apple smartphone. Web-browsing smartphones were a niche market, and wireless bandwidth limitations made browsing painfully slow (and media streaming virtually impossible). For messaging, the Blackberry had an overwhelming market share. And the iPhone was crazy expensive. How could it possibly succeed?

• by augment001 on 4/6/23, 3:16 PM

  I think it’s going to be hard for them to make an iPhone like splash. On the other hand it seems like they need to ship and start iterating.

  It will be very interesting to see what they market it for. Seems like a hard sell for consumer, but I could see it as a pro-device. There are all kinds of creative applications that could benefit from a high end headset.

  If they can get some of the 3D modeling tools ported for launch, plus some music tools etc, and perhaps some data visualization apps, I could see it being interesting.

• by brucethemoose2 on 4/6/23, 3:13 PM

  Apple has a huge SoC advantage over Facebook here, especially in tandem with their massive Pro/Ultra GPUs if they can be tethered to a Mac.

  There were even rumors of a dedicated gpu die for VR... which I do not have a citation for.

  They also have an ecosystem advantage. Going by Horizon World's development, Meta knows nothing about what makes virtual environments in video games fun, and not enough of an ecosystem to hit a 3rd party cricital mass. But Apple has a decent pile of good iOS devs.

• by 2OEH8eoCRo0 on 4/6/23, 5:24 PM

  As a self proclaimed Apple-hater, I wouldn't count them out. I laugh at every new product line and then in 2 years I see it everywhere (watches, iPads).

• by cjbprime on 4/6/23, 3:53 PM

  I suspect that rather than AI cannabilizing VR/AR interest, it will accelerate it, as VR/AR provide compelling personas to powerful chatbots.

• by Kon-Peki on 4/6/23, 6:41 PM

  Completely disagree. This is the best possible time to release it.

  If it does poorly, well, so is everyone else. If it does well, then it’s because Apple are geniuses.

  (the other option, of course, is to not release at all - but then they aren’t, by definition, getting into VR)

• by Maursault on 4/6/23, 5:36 PM

  The problem isn't the timing. The issues, however, are myriad. Apple's product success relies on the success of competitors creating a market previously. Then Apple comes in with a better product and takes over the market. No one has been successful at VR in 30 years of valiant attempts, and the VR/AR market has remained negligible and solely within the realm of gaming and expensive military applications. Apple is good at making consumers want something they didn't know they needed. No one needs VR, and no one ever will. I'm not predicting Apple will fail, my puny mind just can't comprehend how they can possibly be successful with VR/AR without any preexisting successes nor any extant VR/AR market to speak of.

  I think Apple would have been more likely to be successful with the Apple Car. I think Apple should take over the kitchen appliance market. I want an Apple Faucet™ on my Apple Sink™ and to cook meals on my Apple Rangetop™ and store leftovers in my Apple Refridgerator/Freezer™. Apple should also just come in and eat Microsoft's lunch in commerce and business. I don't understand why Apple is not interested in these markets.

• by Tiktaalik on 4/6/23, 4:50 PM

  The troubling thing is that one of the core use case that VR seems most compelling for is games, and Apple has been uninterested in being games platform holder and dismal in its performance when it's accidentally become one.

  Seems hard to believe that Apple would be better in this area than Sony.

  And so we really have to hope and believe that Apple has come up with a very compelling reason to use VR outside of games!

• by binarynate on 4/6/23, 6:31 PM

  It will be interesting to see how Apple prices and frames this device. $3k is an enormous price tag that would limit its adoption to enterprise (which isn't a big market today) and the richest Apple fans. So either the rumored price is significantly off ($1.5k = still expensive but more within reach of gamers and prosumers) or Apple thinks its headset is so revolutionary that it will win over many businesses that don't use mixed reality yet today.

  I also expect Apple to frame this as an AR device that can also do VR (rather than the other way around). In other words, if it's an AR device that is 10x better than Hololens 2 and slightly cheaper, they can capture that existing (small) enterprise AR market today and grow that market much larger.

• by boronine on 4/6/23, 4:28 PM

  I just want a headset for normal work. Imagine being able to travel with your 4K monitor.